Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Your discussion questions & themes

Mary Ellen: Does the play confirm or deny assumptions about racial and religious difference in the early modern period?

Meghan: Given his status as a "foreigner," where does Othello belong?

Brigette: How do ideas about women's roles (where the household/family is the primary social unit dictating rules of behavior) affect your point of view of Othello's concerns over the loss of his reputation/honor?

Sarah: What anxieties about order and masculinity/mutability do we see at work in the play?

Megan: How do the passions influence the outcome of the play? What imbalances lead to extreme behaviors?

Hannahbeth: How legitimate and/or true do we consider appropriations, adaptations, or translations of the play?


Emerging Themes:
  • control/containment
  • projecting anxieties (on the "other")
  • the problem of the binary
  • rank & rule
  • boundaries
  • inner/outer and spiritual/physical

Also...the wiki is primed and ready for your handout posting.

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