Representation of Muslims in William Shakespeare's Othello
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31436/alrisalah.v6i2.400Abstract
Muslims in Western writings are usually attributed distorted images and negative characteristics by the writers. It has become a great concern that the misrepresentation of Muslims in Western writings influences the readers’ perception of Islam and Muslims, thus contributing to Islamophobia that is still prevalent in the present world. The history of misrepresentation of Muslims in Western literary writings dates back to centuries ago seeing how canonical writers like Thomas Dekker and Christopher Marlowe perpetuated the negative representations of Muslims characters in their works. This study attempts to shed light on the images and portrayals of Muslims in Othello (1603-1604), a play written by William Shakespeare during the early Elizabethan period. In order to conduct an in-depth analysis of this topic, this study employs the theory of postcolonialism, particularly adopting one of its prominent concepts, Orientalism as the main theoretical framework. The results of the analysis suggest that Shakespeare uses the Orientalist stereotypes of Muslims in the construction of the Moor and the Turks in the play. This study contributes to the future discussion of the Anglo-Islamic relations and the representation of Muslims in Elizabethan plays.
Downloads
References
Al-Abboud, D. (2016) The Question of Islamophobia and Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great [Master’s Thesis, American University in Cairo] The American University, Digital Archive and Research Repository. http://dar.aucegypt.edu/handle/10526/4782?show=full
Al-Olaqi, F. M. T. S. (2012b). English Literary Portrait of the Arabs. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(9). https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.2.9.1767-1775
Al-Olaqi, F. T. (2012). Marlowe’s Tamburlaine (1587) and Islamic Theology. Trames. Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, 16(2), 177. https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2012.2.05
Alshammari, A. (2020). Representations of Muslims in English Renaissance Drama. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 10(12). doi: 10.30845/ijhss.v10n12p1
Baldick, C. (2001). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Oxford Quick Reference). Oxford University Press.
Barin, F. (2010). Othello: Turks as “the Other” in the Early Modern Period. The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, 43(2), 37–58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41960526
Barry, P. (2002). Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (2nd ed.). Manchester University Press.
Bayley, J. (1991) Shakespearean Tragedy. Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. Penguin Books Ltd.
Bayouli, T. (2009). Elizabethan Orientalism and its Contexts: The Representation of the Orient in Early Modern English Drama. International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies, 1(1), 109-128. Retrieved from: https://emuni.si/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1_109-128.pdf
Beem, C. (2011). The Foreign Relations of Elizabeth I. Palgrave Macmillan.
Butcher, Philip. “Othello’s Racial Identity.” Shakespeare Quarterly 3, no. 3 (1952): 243–47. https://doi.org/10.2307/2866304.
Charry, B. (2008). “[T]he Beauteous Scarf”: Shakespeare and the “Veil Question.” Shakespeare, 4(2), 112–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450910802083112
Cheesman, T. (2019) Othello 1.3: “Far More Fair than Black” Cambridge.
Clegg, C. (2019). The Undiscovered Countries: Shakespeare and the Afterlife. Religions, 10(3), 174. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10030174
Collins, T. R. H. (2016, September) An inquiry into the cultural and political influences of English engagement with the Muslims of Morocco and the Ottoman Empire, in the writings of three early modern dramatists, and selected pamphleteers in the years between 1578-1649 [Master’s thesis, University of York]. White Rose eTheses Online.
Cox, J. (2018). Shakespeare and Religion. Religions, 9(11), 343. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9110343
Elaskary, M. I. H. (2008) The Image of Moors in the Writing of Four Elizabethan Dramatists: Peele, Deeker, Heywood and Shakespeare. [Doctorate thesis, University of Exeter].
Ghanim, F. M. (2018). The Moor as a Muslim in William Shakespeare’s Othello. European Jounal of Social Science Education and Research. 5(1). doi: 10.2478/ejser-2018-0016.
Hall, A. (2015) Othello as Morisco. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews. 28(2). 10.1080/0895769X.2015.1038970
Hamadi, L. (2014). Edward Said: The Postcolonial Theory and the Literature of Decolonization. European Scientific Journal. ISSN: 1857-7431
Hamlin, E. A. (2018). Iago The Moor Killer: The Geo-Political Context behind Shakespere’s Othello. [Project in requirements of the University Scholars Programs, Seattle Pacific University].
Hamlin, H. (2019). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Religion. Cambridge University Press.
Heidari, N. F & Oktem, O. (2020) The Other in Othello: Backsliding and Re-turning Turk of the Moor. International Journal of Media Culture and Literature.
Heidari, N. F. & Oktem, O. (2020) The Other in Othello: Backsliding and Re-turning Turk of the Moor. International Journal of Media Culture and Literature. 6(1).
Hutchings, M. (2008). Shakespeare and Islam: Introduction. Shakespeare, 4(2), 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450910802083104
Johanyak, D. (2009) “Turning Turk,” Early Modern English Orientalism, and Shakespeare’s Othello. The English Renaissance, Orientalism and the Idea of Asia.
Johanyak, D. (2009). “Turning Turk,” Early Modern English Orientalism, and Shakespeare’s Othello. The English Renaissance, Orientalism, and the Idea of Asia, 77–95. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106222_4
Johanyak, D. (2019) Shifting Religious Identities and Sharia in Othello. Religions, 10(10), 587. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10100587
Johanyak, D. (2009). “Turning Turk,” Early Modern English Orientalism, and Shakespeare’s Othello. In: Johanyak, D., Lim, W.S.H. (eds) The English Renaissance, Orientalism, and the Idea of Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230106222_4
Jowitt, C. (2002) Political Allegory in Late Elizabethan and Early Jacobean “Turk” Plays: Lust’s Dominion and The Turke. Comparative Drama. 36(3). https://doi.org/10.1353/cdr.2002.0022
Kalt, A. (2019). The (De-) Construction of Racial Stereotypes in Shakespeare’s Plays.
Kastan, D. S. (2014). A Will to Believe. Oxford University Press.
Kidwai, A. R. (2018). “Literary Orientalism: Main Contours up to the British Romantic Period” in the 1st Annual International Conference on Language and Literature, KnE Social Sciences, pp: 37-46. doi: 10.18502/kss.v3i4.1915
Loomba, A. (2015). Colonialism/Postcolonialism. Taylor & Francis Group.
Loomba, A. & Orkin, M. (2004) Post-Colonial Shakespeares. Taylor & Francis Group.
Masood, H. A. (2005). Islam in Medieval and Early Modern English Literature: A Select Bibliography. Islamic Studies, 44(4), 553–629. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20838992
Matar, N. (2000). Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery. Columbia University Press.
Matar, N. I. (1997). Muslims in Seventeenth-Century England. Journal of Islamic Studies, 8(1), 63–82.http://www.jstor.org/stable/26198490
Maurer, K. (2000). CliffsComplete Shakespeare’s Othello (3rd ed.). Cliffs Notes.
McJannet, L. (2009). Islam and English Drama: A Critical History. Early Theatre, 12(2).https://doi.org/10.12745/et.12.2.822
Miller, K. (2013) “An Imperialism of the Imagination” : Muslim Characters and Western Authors in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Student Publications, Gettysburg College.
Oueijan, N. B. (1996). The Progress of an Image: The East in English Literature (American University Studies). Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers.
Payne, M., & Barbera, J. R. (2010). A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.
Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts. (2014). Taylor & Francis Group.
Potter, L. (2012). The Life of William Shakespeare. Wiley.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Routledge
Sanders, N., & McMillin, S. (2003). Othello (The New Cambridge Shakespeare) (Updated ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Schmidt, S. (2014) The Framed Arab/Muslim: Mediated Orientalism. (Re-)Framing the Arab/Muslim.
Shah, N. H. B. (2014) At Sea, In Text, and on Stage: Islam and Muslims in Early Modern English Drama. [Master’s thesis, University of Birmingham).
Shaw, R., & Shaw, R. A. (1995). “Othello” and Race Relations in Elizabethan England. Journal of African American Men, 1(1), 83–91. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41811353
Stesienko, A. (2011) “The Monster in the Moor,” The Oswald Review; An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English. 13(1), 7. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/tor/vol13/iss1/7
Tilwani, S. A. (2020) The Orient: Villains in the Plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare. Rupkatha Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanity. 12(1) https://dx.doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v12n1.35
Tyson, L. (2011). Using Critical Theory: How to Read and Write about Literature. Routledge
Urban, D. V. (2019). Introduction to “Religions in Shakespeare’s Writings.” Religions, 10(12), 655. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10120655
Vaughan, V. M. (2009). Emissaries in Early Modern Literature and Culture [E-book]. Routledge.
Vitkus, D. (2019) Othello, Islam and the Noble Moor: Spiritual Identity and the Performance of Blackness on the Early Modern Stage. Cambridge.
Vitkus, D. (2019). Islam. The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare, 731–738. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316137062.095
Vitkus, D. J. (1997). Turning Turk in Othello: The Conversion and Damnation of the Moor. Shakespeare Quarterly, 48(2), 145–176. https://doi.org/10.2307/2871278
Whitney, L. (1992) Did Shakespeare Know Leo Africanus?. Modern Language Association. 37(3). https://www.jstor.org/stable/457156
Xiaojing, Z. (1998). Othello’s Color in Shakespeare’s Tragedy. CLA Journal, 41(3), 335–348. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44323152
Zid, M. B. & Al-Amri, H. (2019) A Fresh Look at Shakespeare’s Dramaturgy: Towards an Orientalist Approach to ‘Othello’. European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies. 7(5). Online ISSN: 2055-0146.
