Othello: A Postcolonial Play

ABSTRACT

In pursuance of Literary Theory and Criticism, texts are drastically heterogeneous. They do not contain any general meaning, but each time a text is read from a different perspective, it reproduces new meanings and contributes to the propagation of new ideas and theories. A deconstructive reading can reveal the irreconcilable possibilities generated by the text, and the reader finds it strenuous to determine any permanent meanings. In this paper, Shakespeare's Othello is read from a different perspective in adherence to postcolonial theory. The Othello bears several references to postcolonial qualities – the Eurocentric ideology of Elizabethan people, who incline to think and express their thoughts in terms of binary oppositions, the notion of postcolonial othering, the position of marginalized, a clash between the Orient and the Occident, the hybridity of culture, identity crisis, and European racial consciousness, etc. Thus, the present paper focuses mainly on Shakespeare's work Othello with a postcolonial approach in the light of Edward Said's Orientalism.