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Postcolonial Othering in Three Plays by Shakespeare: Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest

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Čađo, Mojca. (2014). Postcolonial Othering in Three Plays by Shakespeare: Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of English Language and Literature. [mentor Ciglar-Žanić, Janja].

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Abstract

This thesis aims to present a reading of three plays by William Shakespeare from the perspective of postcolonial literary studies. The plays selected for analysis in this context, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, and Othello, can be read with regard to certain stereotypes about the Other. Each play is analysed from the perspective of postcolonial criticism mainly through an exploration of markers of difference it contains, such as speech, race, religion, and gender. The first play discussed in the paper, Othello, is viewed in terms of early modern European anxieties about race and religion, focusing on the stereotype of a dark foreign man and its perceptions among Shakespeare's contemporary audience. The second play considered in this paper, Antony and Cleopatra, explores the stereotype of a dark non-European woman and the threatening, gender-reversing aspect of Oriental femininity. The third play discussed is The Tempest, which is analysed in terms of the Wild Man/noble savage stereotype, as well as its exploration of a very particular relationship between a master-coloniser and his subjects. Conclusions about social, political, and cultural ideologies of early modern Europe are reached by examining particular sets of stereotypes of Otherness that are reflected in the three plays, with the help of reinscriptions by eminent postcolonial literary scholars.

Item Type: Diploma Thesis
Uncontrolled Keywords: gender, ideology, Otherness, postcolonialism, race
Subjects: English language and literature
Departments: Department of English Language and Literature
Supervisor: Ciglar-Žanić, Janja
Date Deposited: 01 Apr 2015 11:18
Last Modified: 01 Apr 2015 11:18
URI: http://darhiv.ffzg.unizg.hr/id/eprint/5213

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