Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,3, University of Heidelberg (Anglistisches Seminar), course: The First Century of US-American Drama, language: English, abstract: In this paper, I will compare the character of Desdemona in the play "Othello" by Shakespeare with that in the burlesque opera "Otello" by Rice. I will first analyze the figure of Desdemona in Shakespeare’s play and then in Rice’s opera – one after another. Next, I will compare the two characters of Desdemona and will explore in which ways their qualities coin-cide, or rather, in what extent they differ in their personalities. Lastly, I will briefly summarize the different characters of Desdemona in both "Othello" and "Otello". William Shakespeare’s "Othello" portrays the mixed-race love between Desdemona, a white Venetian beauty, and the Moor Othello, Venice’s general. Mislead by Iago, his ensign and also the play’s villain, Othello develops an unfounded suspicion of his wife Desdemona and his lieu-tenant Cassio, which results not only in Othello’s suicide, but also in the murder of his wife who, as it turns out, has been innocent of adultery all along. The tragedy thus represents love and good on the one hand (embodied by Desdemona) and the involved problem of jealousy and revenge (personified by Othello) – not least the issue of miscegenation – on the other hand. As many of Shakespeare’s works (which usually are adaptations themselves), "Othello", first performed in 1606, has been the basis for numerous subsequent adaptations, such as the burlesque opera by Thomas D. Rice of 1844. The opera’s plot is essentially similar to that of the play by Shakespeare, yet a few changes have been made. In Rice’s parody, Otello and Desdemona have a child and Shakespeare’s handkerchief has become a common towel. Yet the most conspicuous alteration is Desdemona’s resurrection after being killed at the end of the play. Apart from that, it appears that the two characters of Desdemona in both "Othello" and "Otello" are quite alike. Depicted as a rather subordinate role in both the play and the opera, as compared to her husband and the title character Othello/Otello, Desdemona actually portrays the heroine in both stories. Both become victims of their husbands’ jealousy and finally have to die despite being innocent. When taking a closer look, however, it becomes apparent that the two characters are not that comparable in their personality as initially seems to be the case. In fact, they both gradually reveal themselves as rather different people.

This edition of Othello reprints the Bevington edition of the play accompanied by six sets of thematically arranged primary documents and illustrations designed to facilitate many different approaches to Shakespeare. The text includes tracts on marriage, travel literature, military manuals, maps, ballads, royal proclamations, early modern descriptions of Africa and the Middle East, nineteenth-century scripts for performances of Othello, and scenes from contemporary re-envisionings of the play. The primary documents contextualize race and religion in the Renaissance, gender relations, military life, the passions, the notion of the "Other" in early modern England, and the afterlife of Othello on the stage.

Collected interviews featuring the Nebula Award–winning author and his thoughts on topics like literary criticism, comic books, race, and sexuality. For nearly three decades, Samuel R. Delany’s science fiction has transported millions of readers to the fringes of time, technology, and outer space. Now Delany surveys the realms of his own experience as a writer, critic, theorist, and gay Black man in this collection of written interviews, a type of guided essay. Because the written interview avoids the “mutual presence positioned at the semantic core” of traditional interview, Delany explains, “a kind of cut remains between the participants—a fissure in which the truths there may be more malleable, less rigid.” Within that fissure Delany pursues the breadth and depth of his ideas on language and theory, the politics of literary composition, the experience of marginality, and the philosophical, commercial, and personal contexts of writing today. Gathered from sources as diverse as Diacritics and The Comics Journal, these interviews reveal the broad range of Delany’s thought and interests. “Delany has a unique place in late twentieth century letters. A lifelong inhabitant of the margins, both social and literary, he has used his marginalized status as a lens to focus his astute observations of American literature and society. From these interviews his voice emerges, provocative, precise, and engaging.” —Kathleen Spencer, University of Nebraska “Samuel R. Delany never shies away from contestable positions or provocative opinions. In his fiction, Delany can write like quicksilver, and in lectures or panel discussions, he is easily SF’s most articulate spokesperson in academia. . . . There is much here that is not covered in Delany’s critical or autobiographical writings, and much that anyone seriously interested in SF—or many of Delany’s other favorite topics—ought to consider.” —Locus “Delany is fascinating whether discussing SF, comics, or his experiences as a Black American, and this collection . . . is as entertaining as it is informative.” —Science Fiction Chronicle “Yevgeny Zamyatin? Stanislaw Lem? Forget it! Delany is both, with a lot of Borges and Bruno Schultz thrown in.” —Village Voice

A wide-ranging consideration of the nature and significance of Pushkin's African heritage Roughly in the year 1705, a young African boy, acquired from the seraglio of the Turkish sultan, was transported to Russia as a gift to Peter the Great. This child, later known as Abram Petrovich Gannibal, was to become Peter's godson and to live to a ripe old age, having attained the rank of general and the status of Russian nobility. More important, he was to become the great-grandfather of Russia's greatest national poet, Alexander Pushkin. It is the contention of the editors of this book, borne out by the essays in the collection, that Pushkin's African ancestry has played the role of a "wild card" of sorts as a formative element in Russian cultural mythology; and that the ways in which Gannibal's legacy has been included in or excluded from Pushkin's biography over the last two hundred years can serve as a shifting marker of Russia's self-definition. The first single volume in English on this rich topic, Under the Sky of My Africa addresses the wide variety of interests implicated in the question of Pushkin's blackness-race studies, politics, American studies, music, mythopoetic criticism, mainstream Pushkin studies. In essays that are by turns biographical, iconographical, cultural, and sociological in focus, the authors-representing a broad range of disciplines and perspectives-take us from the complex attitudes toward race in Russia during Pushkin's era to the surge of racism in late Soviet and post-Soviet contemporary Russia. In sum, Under the Sky of My Africa provides a wealth of basic material on the subject as well as a series of provocative readings and interpretations that will influence future considerations of Pushkin and race in Russian culture.

Shakespeare is both the world's most quoted author and a frequent quoter himself. This volume unites these creative practices.

THE STORY: Having slept with Othello's entire encampment, Desdemona revels in her bawdy tales of conquest. Her foils and rapt listeners are the other integral and re-imagined women of this Shakespeare tragedy: Emilia, Desdemona's servant and the wi