William Shakespeare
Course on representation of the other in Shakespeare's plays Othello, The Merchant of Venice and the Tempest
General sources
Vejledning i læsning af Shakespeare (sproglige problemer og anvendelse af annoterede udgivelser)
Elizabethan Theatre A lecture by Hilda Spear. Good introduction to the Elizabethan theatre. Interesting illustrations.
Shakespeare on the Net: One of the most extensive Shakespeare sites on the net daphne.palomar.edu/shakespeare/
Shakespeare Theatre Company Productions
Summaries of Shakespeare's plays: The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello
Danish summaries - Translation exercise
Antisemistisme i danske medier
William Shakespeare, The Tempest, (1610-11) Act I scene ii pp. 35-39 ll. 269-377
Prospero, the Duke of Milan is tricked out of his dukedom, put on board a ship with his three-year-old daughter Miranda. They end up on a far away island which is uninhabited except for Caliban, the ugly son of a witch, whom Prospero enslaves. At this point Prospero has spent 12 years on the island educating his daughter Miranda, and gaining control of the good spirits on the island, among them Ariel.
The Tempest is traditionally interpreted as an allegory on the power of art and the theatre and as Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage (it is the last play he wrote). In the last 50 years or so the play has also been viewed as an allegory on colonial power by critics and producers.
The director Whorisky about staging the Tempest: “A central question when you're doing The Tempest is whether it's about colonialism or not, if you make the decision that it is about colonialism, then the next question is, ‘Who is Caliban?' In The Tempest , Caliban is called monstrous, vile, villainous. But is that Caliban or a colonizer's view of him?"
Caliban From a Royal Shakespeare Production 1982
Ian Johnston Essay on The Tempest, see paricularly the last part discussing the Tempest as a study of colonialism
Michel de Montaigne: On Cannibals (1580)
As a true representative of the Enlightenment Montaigne initiated the tradition of using non-European peoples as a basis for analyzing and criticising his own culture. in the process he undoubtedly romantizing what Rousseau would later call "the noble savage".
Shakespeare would most likely have read Montaigne's essay des Cannibales.
William Shakespeare: Othello (1604) Act I scenes i, ii and iii, act III, scene iii, Act V scene ii
Race is a particularly critical factor in Othello, the story of the "dark Moor" who succumbs to sexual jealousy amidst a white society. Why does Iago mislead Othello so cruelly? And why does Othello believe Iago's lies, and ultimately commit the heinous act of killing his beloved wife? What does Shakespeare mean to say in this scenario? (PBS Essay on Race and Religion)
Laurence Fishburne as Othello and Kenneth Branagh as Iago in Oliver Parker's filmatization 1995
Shakespeare's Moor: The Sources and Representations
PBS Othello Essay on Race and Religion
The History and Description of Africa by Leo Africanus. This text provides a contemporary description of Africans which is interesting to compare with Shakespeare's portrayal of the Moor, Othello. The book was translated into English around 1600, it was widely distributed and Shakespeare might very well have read it.
William Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice (1595) Act I scene iii, Act II scene i, Act III scene i Act IV scene i
Al Pacino as Shylock
Bronstein: Though he appears in only five out of twenty scenes in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock has attracted the major share of interest in the drama's long history on the stage and in critical literature. One's first association with The Merchant of Venice is invariably Shylock. "Shylock" has become a term of disapproval, a link in the history of anti-Jewish stereotype, just as Shylock's "pound of flesh" has become a metaphor for cruel and relentless greed.
Jimi Rogers, "Shylock and History"
Herbert Bronstein: Shakespeare's Plea for Human Values
Interesting course description on how to teach The Merchant of Venice
Shylock