Dadabhoy, Ambereen. "Othello and the epithet of 'Moor.'" Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/othello-and-the-epithet-of-moor. [Date accessed].
Othello and the epithet of "Moor"
Reading between the lines of Shakespeare’s othering language
The coded language of the War on Terror, the 2017 Muslim ban, and the conflict in Gaza is not new. Muslims have been stereotypically portrayed as violent and tyrannical since the premodern periods. It’s important for students to be able to identify these strategic maneuvers in premodern literature and culture so that they can see these reflected in our present moment and identify them as false and misleading constructions. Ambereen Dadabhoy uses Shakespeare’s Othello as a text through which students can think about contemporary Islamophobia and the tropes about Muslim people that we still encounter today.
Further learning
Recommended
Language and race in The Man in the Moone
The Man in the Moone by Francis Godwin provides a genealogy of premodern anti-Asian sentiment. The collision of language and race, and the allegorical comparison of the Chinese to the Lunarians results in the alienation of Asian culture and language.
