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Adaptation versus Re-Vision
In our Shakespeare-centric culture, we participate in the continuity of a great tradition through which we receive and renew this legacy. Such renewal is valuable as an ongoing historical marker and artistic resource. But a potential danger of this reiteration is the complacency that results when a cultural heritage becomes static because new developments are always interpreted and co-opted, in circular fashion, as an adaptation and extension of Shakespeare's plays, which are viewed as the origin and foundation for all subsequent work. For a culture to keep growing, it also needs change and new directions.
One way to clarify and circumvent this problem is to pursue a dual critical approach that makes a sharp distinction between adaptation and re-vision. The present article is part of a cluster of new essays I have written since 2007 on a range of adaptive and revisionary responses to Othello by contemporary writers and visual artists.1 In Adrienne Rich's classic definition of re-vision, "We need to know the writing of the past, and know it differently than we have ever known it; not to pass on a tradition but to break its hold over us" (Rich 1971, 35). From this perspective, it is possible to envision a departure that moves outside the Shakespearean framework. What is striking about Toni Morrison's engagement with Shakespeare is the extent to which her reinterpretation of Othello is grounded in close reading of Shakespeare's play.2 This baseline allows Morrison to perform the nearly impossible task of acknowledging the power of the old story in the process of creating a re-vision that breaks new ground.
Silencing/Reviving Desdemona
Prior to Desdemona's appearance on stage in Shakespeare's drama, Othello's narration of "the story of my life" (Othello 1.3.128) casts her in the role of listener, as the receiver of his well-told story, albeit an eager, appreciative one "with a greedy ear" (148).3 As soon as she arrives at the meeting of the Senate, however, she demonstrates a linguistic power of persuasion equal to Othello's. As though inspired by hearing Othello, Desdemona leaves behind her domestic life of "house affairs" (146) and quickly finds her own voice in the public arena. First, she addresses her father with confidence and exactitude about her...