The Poetics and Politics of Screening Shakespeare's Othello

This book calls into question the universality of Shakespeare’s Othello as it examines seven filmic productions of this play from several geographical regions (The USA, Britain, and South Africa) that are plagued with racial or colour prejudice. Although they noticeably vary in aesthetic mode and range from the impressionist avant-garde to Pop form culture, such filmic productions handle the issue of race and ethnicity through adaptational styles that resonate with specific communities of spectators where colour still matters. The book revisits the whole enterprise of Shakespearean film adaptation and takes off from the premise that the filmic rendition of Shakespeare’s Othello is in itself a politically liberating act. It examines how such a rendition did shake the traditional Shakespearean establishment which treated the popular bard as an English cultural asset that should be safely guarded within the confines of the playhouse or the opera house. The thrust of this work, however, is endorsed by the firm belief that Shakespeare’s dramatic material is not only suitable for film but has made him more accessible and popular through film.