90 Questions summarising the key points from Ayanna Thompson s Introduction to Othello

Transcription

1 Introduction (AO1, AO5) 1. List the twelve potential meanings that Thompson proposes for Othello is it a play about? What is Othello? (AO2, AO4) 2. What three genres does Thompson state Shakespeare merges in Othello? 3. How has Shakespeare subverted the first of these? Where is Othello? (AO1, AO2, AO3, AO4, AO5) 4. In Cinthio s version, how is Disdemona killed? 5. In what ways does Thompson state that Othello thwarts the moralism inherent in vendetta narratives? 6. What other texts (including plays) does it seem likely that Shakespeare read and used to enhance his character of Othello? 7. What does the geographical split in Othello seem to signify? 8. What were the two opposing views of Venice in the Early Modern English mind? 9. What mythological associations link Venice and Cyprus? 10. What does Anthony Barthelemy state is the only certainty about the use of the word Moor? 11. Who was most likely the first actor to play the character Othello? 12. What diverse prosthetics were used to covey racial differences in early modern performances? 13. What colour was Othello (most likely) depicted as in the earliest performances? What quotations support this? 14. What, based on the context in which it is mentioned, do you think metadramatic means and what debate has there been about how Othello should be performed?

2 15. Who was the first recorded person to question Othello s depicted colour and what basis did he use for his argument? 16. What is miscegenation? 17. What was the Bronze Age of Othello? 18. What words are listed to describe how Shakespeare s original audience would have perceived Turks? 19. How might we link early modern British fears about Turks to radical political issues today? 20. What was the Ottoman Empire in the late 1600s? 21. What did To turn Turk mean in early modern English? What alternative readings can be applied to this line of Othello s from Act 2? (AO5) 22. What evidence does Thompson offer for the play ending with a longing for some certainty about the differences between barbarians and the civilized1? 23. What interpretations are offered for the scene in which Othello and Iago? 24. How is Othello linked with The Merchant of Venice in terms of conversion? 25. What binaries does Thompson suggest are set up and knocked down in Othello? 26. What role is the frequent use of animal imagery considered to have? Othello and the Audience (AO1, AO2, AO5, AO3) 27. In what way is the audience uniquely positioned in Othello? 28. How have audience s responded to the murder of Desdemona over time? 29. What are the differing opinions on Iago s motivations? 30. Which passage is absent from the 1622 Quarto, but present in the 1623 Folio? 31. What unusual method of dying handkerchiefs was not uncommon in early modern England?

3 32. What are the various interpretations of the handkerchief (agent or prop, signifier, etc.)? 33. What is the significance of Othello and Desdemona s bedsheets? Othello and Scholarly Debates (AO1, AO3, AO5) 34. Summarise the key points from Rymer s 1693 Criticism of Othello 35. How does Charlotte Lennox s opinion contrast with Rymer? 36. How important does A.C. Bradley (1904) seem to consider the understanding of perceptions over time? (i.e. what contextual factors does he consider in his arguments about Othello s presentation?) 37. What does A. C Bradley state are Iago s motives? 38. What is a metadramatic figure? 39. How do Bradley s and Eliot s views of Othello differ? (give some detail, maybe a pithy quote) 40. What do you think about Leavis s view of Othello? Give reasons for your response. 41. What altered the nature of critical debate from roughly the turn of the 21 st Century? 42. What does Okri argue that Othello should be viewed as and what impact does this have on a reader s view of his characterisation? 43. How might Callaghan s historicist-based interpretation influence an audience s view of the play? 44. What impact did Paul Robeson s performances as Othello have on audiences and critics? 45. To what extent do you agree with Hugh Quarshie s view on pages 65-66? Provide reasons for your response. 46. What is the myth that Daileader claims can be traced to Othello? 47. What opinions do you have regarding the casting of Othello, after reading the range of critical opinions? Othello onstage, Part 1: Stage Histories (AO2, AO3, AO5) 48. What differences were there between the venues for the earliest performances of Othello and why is this significant?

4 49. How could the Restoration performances of Othello be considered to have promoted women s value on the stage and in society? 50. What changes were made to Othello in the eighteenth century and how did it impact upon the presentation of the protagonist? 51. With which other characters did Othello come to be connected and with what effect? 52. What happened to the play in the nineteenth century? 53. What long shadow did Edmund Kean s Othello cast on future performances of the character? 54. What two camps of acting did the nineteenth century Othellos divide into? What defined these groups? (You need to read up to page 77) 55. What had not occurred by the time this introduction was submitted for publishing, but has now happened? (page 77) 56. How does this play interweave with Black and American History? (Page 78-80) 57. Why did Lawrence Olivier s performance as Othello seem anachronistic to many Americans? 58. Which decade saw a more permanent shift towards black actors playing Othello? 59. What themes began to dominate production in the early 21 st Century (and indeed feature heavily in the production that you saw from the RSC)? Othello Onstage, Part 2: Black Actors, White Actresses 60. What challenges did Olivier cite in playing Othello? 61. What three types of responses to the role of Othello played by black actors does Thompson suggest exist? 62. Into what time periods to these response tend to fall, according to Thompson? 63. Alongside what other entertainment did Aldridge have to perform scenes from Othello? 64. Why did Sidney Poitier (look him up) refuse to play the part of Othello? 65. What were Quarshire s objections to the play Othello? Give his reasons also. 66. How does the RSC production that you saw fit in with the post-millenium production, include the 2013 NT production? 67. What two camps does Thompson state that performances of Desdemona fall into?

5 68. How do these divide historically? 69. How did the culture of the 18 th Century and into the 19 th affect the performances of Desdemona? (pages 91-92) 70. What roots that could be considered as close to feminism can you perceive in the attitudes that actresses had towards this part at the end of the 19 th century? 71. Which three actresses first transformed the role of Desdemona and how did they do it? What do we find out about one of these actresses which once again ties this play to political attitudes? 72. What were Ashcroft s feminist arguments around Desdemona and Othello? 73. What shift occurred in the playing of Desdemona after the millennium? How does that fit with the changes in the playing of the part of Othello? 74. What does Thompson suggest is the primary relationship in Othello and why? 75. Do you agree with Thompson s predicted outcome of reducing the visible age difference between Othello and Desdemona? Give reasons. Othello Onstage, Part 3: Othello in the World (AO2, AO3, AO5) 76. What was the impact of the 1987 production of Othello in Johannesburg s Market Theatre and how did the political context influence or impinge the production itself? 77. What was different about Ong Keng Sen s 2000 production which premiered in Adelaide? 78. What was different about the 2009 Deutsches Theater Berlin production? What impact might it have had? 79. What does Thompson state is important to remember about the global productions of Othello? Othello: Restaged / Rewritten (AO1, AO2, AO3, AO5) 80. What three categories does Thompson place re-writings of Othello over the centuries? 81. What does Thompson state that the Minstrel shows were designed to do? 82. What cultural factors were significant at the time of the minstrel productions? Why is this important? 83. How did the production of Dutchman make the Othello-based character the victim? 84. What is your attitude to the concept behind the 1979 play Iago?

6 85. What do you think of Jackson s opinion given at the bottom of page 107? 86. What does Vogel s feminist re-writing aim to expose? 87. How does Sears play Harlem Duet explore racial issues through a feminist rendering? 88. Which, of all the re-writings mentioned here, interests you or appeals to you? Why? Concluding Thoughts (AO1) 89. With what final thought does Thomspon leave us? 90. How has the reading of this introduction changed, deepened or challenged your initial reading of the play Othello? Please give a response of 2-3 paragraphs for this, citing evidence from either the play, the intro or in best practice, both.