Cover Image

De-‘Moor’ tifying Shakespeare’s Othello: Iago as a Renaissance form of Islamophobia

Albeit Othello’s loyal service to Venice is clear, ramifications of the Blackamoor in the text has called upon a continuous scholarship of interest over the last two decades. One begins to wonder, whether the Blackamoor’s presence in a Venetian setting serves a purpose to the English readership? If...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ismail, Hanita Hanim, Ali Termizi, Arbaayah, Ab Rashid, Radzuwan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Canadian Center of Science and Education 2018
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/72169/1/De-%E2%80%98Moor%E2%80%99%20tifying%20Shakespeare%E2%80%99s%20Othello.pdf
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/72169/
http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijel/article/view/0/37587
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
id my.upm.eprints.72169
record_format eprints
spelling my.upm.eprints.721692020-03-05T07:03:09Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/72169/ De-‘Moor’ tifying Shakespeare’s Othello: Iago as a Renaissance form of Islamophobia Ismail, Hanita Hanim Ali Termizi, Arbaayah Ab Rashid, Radzuwan Albeit Othello’s loyal service to Venice is clear, ramifications of the Blackamoor in the text has called upon a continuous scholarship of interest over the last two decades. One begins to wonder, whether the Blackamoor’s presence in a Venetian setting serves a purpose to the English readership? If so, to what extent did Shakespeare refine the representation of a Moor to draw upon readership? How does Iago serve as a propagandist who articulates and fuels concerns for the seventeenth-century version of Islamophobia? As such, these significant questions have led to the construction of this paper, since these issues continuously problematize and make relevance of Shakespearean plays in the contemporary world. As such, this article examines the significance of Shakespeare’s inclusion, portrayal and representation of Othello as a Moor that poses an image of threat in a seventeenth-century Western context. At the same time, this paper also asserts that Iago is the mouthpiece who initiates worries over possible threats of Islamophobia. The use of Greenblatt’s New Historicism, particularly his concept of energia (1988) enables the validation of such claims by making relevance of the Battle of Lepanto (1571). Results indicated that ‘Othello’ provides an important platform to discuss contemporary renaissance issues such as Islamophobia and Englishness, through indicative clues that Iago is the mastermind that causes fear of the advancing Moors. Canadian Center of Science and Education 2018 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/72169/1/De-%E2%80%98Moor%E2%80%99%20tifying%20Shakespeare%E2%80%99s%20Othello.pdf Ismail, Hanita Hanim and Ali Termizi, Arbaayah and Ab Rashid, Radzuwan (2018) De-‘Moor’ tifying Shakespeare’s Othello: Iago as a Renaissance form of Islamophobia. International Journal of English Linguistics, 8 (7). 23 - 31. ISSN 1923-869X; ESSN: 1923-8703 http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijel/article/view/0/37587 10.5539/ijel.v8n7p23
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
building UPM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Putra Malaysia
content_source UPM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://psasir.upm.edu.my/
language English
description Albeit Othello’s loyal service to Venice is clear, ramifications of the Blackamoor in the text has called upon a continuous scholarship of interest over the last two decades. One begins to wonder, whether the Blackamoor’s presence in a Venetian setting serves a purpose to the English readership? If so, to what extent did Shakespeare refine the representation of a Moor to draw upon readership? How does Iago serve as a propagandist who articulates and fuels concerns for the seventeenth-century version of Islamophobia? As such, these significant questions have led to the construction of this paper, since these issues continuously problematize and make relevance of Shakespearean plays in the contemporary world. As such, this article examines the significance of Shakespeare’s inclusion, portrayal and representation of Othello as a Moor that poses an image of threat in a seventeenth-century Western context. At the same time, this paper also asserts that Iago is the mouthpiece who initiates worries over possible threats of Islamophobia. The use of Greenblatt’s New Historicism, particularly his concept of energia (1988) enables the validation of such claims by making relevance of the Battle of Lepanto (1571). Results indicated that ‘Othello’ provides an important platform to discuss contemporary renaissance issues such as Islamophobia and Englishness, through indicative clues that Iago is the mastermind that causes fear of the advancing Moors.
format Article
author Ismail, Hanita Hanim
Ali Termizi, Arbaayah
Ab Rashid, Radzuwan
spellingShingle Ismail, Hanita Hanim
Ali Termizi, Arbaayah
Ab Rashid, Radzuwan
De-‘Moor’ tifying Shakespeare’s Othello: Iago as a Renaissance form of Islamophobia
author_facet Ismail, Hanita Hanim
Ali Termizi, Arbaayah
Ab Rashid, Radzuwan
author_sort Ismail, Hanita Hanim
title De-‘Moor’ tifying Shakespeare’s Othello: Iago as a Renaissance form of Islamophobia
title_short De-‘Moor’ tifying Shakespeare’s Othello: Iago as a Renaissance form of Islamophobia
title_full De-‘Moor’ tifying Shakespeare’s Othello: Iago as a Renaissance form of Islamophobia
title_fullStr De-‘Moor’ tifying Shakespeare’s Othello: Iago as a Renaissance form of Islamophobia
title_full_unstemmed De-‘Moor’ tifying Shakespeare’s Othello: Iago as a Renaissance form of Islamophobia
title_sort de-‘moor’ tifying shakespeare’s othello: iago as a renaissance form of islamophobia
publisher Canadian Center of Science and Education
publishDate 2018
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/72169/1/De-%E2%80%98Moor%E2%80%99%20tifying%20Shakespeare%E2%80%99s%20Othello.pdf
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/72169/
http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijel/article/view/0/37587
_version_ 1662756483480158208
score 13.211869

Similar Items