Katie Chaput teaches 'Othello' as part of her unit, bridging African and English literature to create new contexts for her students to consider. How many doors to discovery can you open for your class with Shakespeare's plays?
American education is, at best, rather demure about race relations. So I wonder how teachers do teach 'Othello,' when racial discrimination is quite flagrant, as when Iago tries to rile Brabantio about what the Moor Othello is doing to his beloved daughter Desdemona:
'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on your gown;
Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul;
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise;
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you:
Arise, I say.
Iago not only reduces race to
black and
white, but also plays on words in a disgustingly graphic way:
- ram, both as a noun and a verb, suggesting blunt force
- ewe, as a pun for you, that is, Brabantio
- tupping, a rude term suggesting animalistic, sexual thrashing
Indeed I wonder how much Chaput covers the brutal nature of such words in the play.
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