Karen Newman Othello Criticism

Kargonn New human being Othello CriticismIn her 1987 article And airstream the Ethiop white muliebrity and the monstrous in Othello,1 Karen Newman sets bug out re-examine prior faultfinding analysis of Shakespeares Othello with the intention to re- see Shakespeare in focal points which contest the hegemonic forces, his plays at the same time affirm (158). Her argument scrutinizes the the male-dominated Venetian introduction (152) of the play and the criticism that it has generated against correlating historical perspectives. Her main thesis about the play asserts that the union of Desdemona and Othello represents a clement identification amongst femininity and the monstrous which offers a potentially subversive recognition of sexual and racial difference. Employing a womens liberationist approach Newman reveals the racial and sex activity mischiefs inwrought both in the play and the unfavorable judgment levelled at it from 1600 through to 1980. In desire new ways of re ading Othello Newman draws on Derridas poststructuralist ideas to establish parallels between the social intercourseship of gender and race. She contends that Desdemona and Othello are equally marginalized by Venetian society Othellos race and Desdemonas progressive grammatical gender presenting equivalent risk to the dominant white male society.In verifying how these attitudes pervade the play itself, Newman points out that fear of miscegenation functions on both levels. Firstly Shakespeare uses the white mans fear of the union of mordant man and white women (144) to generate the plot, and secondly through the double star opposition of black and white characteristic of the plays discourse. To patronise she quotes from the play Black ram tups white ewe and O, the more angel she, And you the blacker devil. The last line illustrates what Newman terms rhetorical miscegenation. Outlining the frequency with which black and white were used to denote polarization during the Renaissanc e, (145) she comments on how the emphasis in Othello of Desdemona as the idealisation of fair female beauty is usually read to emphasise the contrast between these two characters, and declares that contrary to early critics she views Desdemona not as a representative of opposition to blackness and monstrosity, as black is to white, but as identifying with it. Newmans assertion that the play is structured around a heathenish aporia, miscegenation is the offset cornerstone of her argument.Newmans next device is to establish a link between femininity and the racial attitudes inherent in the play. Again she refers to Ridleys criticism, claiming that his choice of example portrays a generalization of women as petty, thereby confirming his gender prejudice. Ridley has displaced the struggle of white against black man onto a cultural femininity. Newman is sympathetic to Stephen Greenblatts (1980) view that Othellos identity is dependent on his loss of his own origins, an embrace and per petual reiteration of the norms of another culture, but criticises this focus as failing to recognise the other as black and female Othello internalises alien cultural values, but his otherness remains apparent, dividing him from that culture and thereby linking him to the plays other marginality, femininity. Newman claims critical considerations with pretend to the symbolic signifi slewce of the handkerchief rebound gender prejudices. Reigning critical preoccupations result in the significance of the handkerchief being limited to a sign of adultery. Contrasting this she terms the handkerchief a snowballing signifier, acquiring figurative and literal meaning as it passes from hand to hand. Newman contests psychoanalytical readings as problematic since they privilege a male scopic fun casting the women as a failed man once again negating her otherness and limiting female sexuality to fetish. (156)Identifying racial attitudes as inclusive of attitudes towards black sexuality, Newm an references popular travel accounts of the time, outlining African as presented descriptively but also mythically (148) terminal always we find a link between blackness and the monstrous, and particularly a monstrous sexuality. These attitudes Newman asserts assimilated into the drama of early modern England. (149) Newman observes the portrayal of Desdemona as voracious and devouring with a greedy ear laboured to masculine informations of femininity. Her desire is presented in terms of an aural/oral libidinal causing Othello anxiety. Newman sees this anxiety as having a duel source the monstrous difference it invokes against his adopted culture, and that it allies her imagined sexual appetite with his own. Othello and Iago are linked in representing white male sexuality in the play. Simultaneously and paradoxically Othello also represents the threat to it. Newmans investigation of historical criticisms surrounding femininity as delineated by Desdemona, uncovers several ironi es. Rymer and Cinthio in a cautionary moral link Desdemonas social disobedience to her sexual duplicity. Othellos punishment of Desdemona however simultaneously confirms the cultural prejudice which labels him a monster. In addition Iagos dramatic construction which leads Othello to see Desdemona as a whore, demonstrates how histrionics model can provide false influence.Newmans undoubtedly subscribes to a feminist school of criticism, seeking to infract the nature of gender inequality and opposing the inherent male hegemony represented within the play. In addition, by her own account, her reading is also semipolitical in that it exposes the ideological discourses which organise the text. She comments that poststructuralist approaches highlight that even extremely formalist readings are political, inscribed in the discourses both of the period in which the work was produced and of those in which it is consumed. Newman references Derridas work on racism and in addition to employi ng deconstructionist discourse his influence can be seen in Newmans design. Recognizing the binary opposition denoted by the polarization of Othellos blackness and Desdemonas whiteness, Newman develops this to assimilate the implied opposition of monstrosity or miscegenation represented by Othello and femininity represented by Desdemona. Deconstructive discourse incorporates the flavor that difference exists both between intend and signifier, and at the same time that the signified defers meaning to the signifier. The role of the literary critic is seen as seeking a slippage in the text, thereby denoting duplicity and revealing how the internal linguistic and thematic rules are inexact. Newman finds this critical slippage in both Rymers Short view of Tragedy (1693) and again in Ridleys criticism 250yrs later, to be the recede from blackness to femininity. (155)Newmans approach offers new and valuable insights through its promise of past criticisms, detailing not merely how they relate to the ideology of the time they represent, but also illustrating how criticism in itself can be read to demonstrate new ideas and ways of reading the play. Her analysis however, places its emphasis on the Desdemonas interracial relationship with Othello and how her disobedience to her father and her choice of black man threaten the prevalent white male hegemony. Newman does not address other characters marginalised through class distinctions and gender. One such relationship is that between aristocratic Cassio and the courtesan Bianca. The hush-hush nature of their liaison is both essential to the plot but also preserves Cassios social standing. Cassio treats Bianca with unforesightful respect scorning her foolishness in loving him. Cassio, Iago and Brabantio all share a mutual sexist prejudice in a similar way to the racist disdain which shapes their worldview. Othello can be seen to be remote this racial bigotry but Newman does not address the question of whether he ac cepts the central stereotyped perception of women. Newmans outline of historical womens roles focuses solely on a westernized version of society and does not address the way in which women were historically regarded within non-westernized cultures.Hinging on the underpinning social apprehension with regard to miscegenation, Newmans argument takes it lead from Bennetts notion that the position a text holds within relation to the ideology at its origin is not requirement an indication of the position which it may subsequently come to hold in different historical and political contexts. Some critics however claim Newman is anachronistic, applying modern concepts of racism historically. Shakespearian audiences would have understood race in a totally different way to contemporary audiences. It would then follow that Newmans application of contemporary ideas with regard to other cultural constructs such as gender would be equally out of place. Acknowledging that Shakespeare was certainly display case to the racist, sexist, and colonialist discourses of his time, Newman declares that by making Othello a black man and through Desdemonas love for him, Shakespeare stands in a contestory relation to the hegemonic ideologies of race and gender in early modern England. Newmans argument is detailed and engages the play against historical points of view, addressing feminist issues and at the same time employing poststructuralist thinking to achieve her goal of establishing a link between femininity and race. Newman sees such strategies of reading as a social responsible in that they illuminate artificial human activity of works which may falsely represent those marginalised groups standing outside culture and simultaneously within it. This representation she sees as being obscured by the immediacy of dramatic performance. Her analysis of Othello is a demonstration of how seamlessly racial attitudes in early English drama where transmitted to viewpoints surrounding gender and sexuality, illustrating how mutually constitutive race, gender, and sexuality can be.