Othello race Flashcards
Kim F. Hall: “Othello’s tragedy is that he can never fully belong to the world that uses him.”
His identity as a successful black man in a white world is always conditional and precarious.
Ania Loomba: ‘‘Othello is a victim of racial beliefs precisely because he becomes an agent of misogynist ones.”
Othello internalizes the prejudices of the dominant culture, turning them against both himself and Desdemona.
Jyotsna Singh: “Othello is offered a fragile assimilation into Venetian society, but that inclusion is always precarious and subject to withdrawal.’’
Reveals the central conflict between Othello’s high rank and the society that never fully accepts him.
Could be used to counter Leavis
Hall: “Blackness and womanhood are commodified and consumed within the same structures of power.”
She ties Othello’s racial identity and Desdemona’s gender into a shared system of control and dehumanisation. Fetishised then punished.
What is ontological resistance and how does it apply to Othello?
Ontological resistance is a person’s ability to assert and maintain their identity and humanity. Othello perhaps lacks this due to institutional racism.
