Othello Blog Exercise #2: Due Wednesday, January 28, by Midnight

• Type 100+ words directly from Othello--verbatim (word for word).

• Translate Shakespearean English to 21st Century Brandon English (also 100+ words). You do the translating; do not copy/paste a translation from a website. This will not take you all week/night.



• Type 100+ more words, personally attaching to this scene or verbal exchange. How does this scene or verbal exchange relate to you or your world? In what ways are you wiser--and therefore more aware--because of what this scene or verbal exchange has made you consider?

300+ words = 30 points (This is a picture of the ever-important symbol, the handkerchief.)

Othello and Orientalism

What is Orientalism? Search the web for a clear definition; Edward Said is the primary source for this topic. How does Orientalism apply to Shakespeare's Othello? Orientalism is a way of studying how the "West" looks down upon, and misjudges, the "East." The West (The Occident--Europe and North America) writes about its notions of the East (The Orient--Africa, The Middle East, Asia) and misrepresents people and customs of the East. Applying this theory to the play: Shakespeare is showing a bias against the East in the way he makes Othello inferior, rash, illogical, overly passionate, even animalistic. The ethnocentric Elizabethans would think the Spanish and Italians were backward and uncivilized, but the Elizabethans would have believed that Africans or Arabs were barely human. Is this an interesting concept to you? I think Orientalism is highly useful when looking at today's world. It is applicable to any war with the Middle East, that is certain.