Othello: New Critical Essays (review)

In his general editor's introduction to Routledge's Shakespeare Criticism series, Philip C. Kolin asserts that each volume in the series "strives to give readers a balanced, representative collection of the most engaging and thoroughly researched criticism on the given Shakespearean text" (xii). The volume he has edited on Othello offers some useful insights, especially in regard to performance, but it nevertheless fails to meet this exacting standard.

Let me begin with the most mundane. Kolin's anthology is marred by sloppy copyediting and inattention to detail, including numerous typographical errors—"suprising" for "surprising" (14), for example, and "realty" for "reality" (48)—and the omission of a word on page 39 that conflates Paul Robeson Jr. with his father and thus makes two sentences totally incoherent. Consistent misspelling of Barbara Hodgdon's name as Hodgson is bad enough, but Kolin also attributes one of her most important essays, "Kiss Me Deadly; or, The Des/Demonized Spectacle," to me (86). Kolin's responsibility for these errors aside, Routledge should have realized that an expensive volume intended for libraries should set a better example for our students.

A few of the essays collected here are indeed engaging and thoroughly researched, including Kolin's own introduction. Although his useful overview of Othello in criticism and performance cannot possibly be comprehensive, and the discussion of critical views is sometimes perfunctory, Kolin's analysis of Othello's performance history on stage, film, and television is masterful. His attention to the telling details of particular productions, gleaned from experience as well as wide reading of reviews and other accounts, is as remarkable as his scope, which includes accounts of Japanese Kabuki and Noh Othellos.

In addition to Kolin's introductory essay, the anthology includes twenty essays, some by scholars already recognized for their work in this area, some by newcomers. Like the introduction, the essays are most interesting when they take a fresh look at performance. Hugh Macrae Richmond on Iago's special relationship to the audience, Sujata Iyengar on the racial dynamics of blackface performance, and John R. Ford on Roderigo as the key to space and place all provide new insights into Othello as a performance text. Francis X. Kuhn's discussion of ways of staging the text's violent episodes—drunken brawl, collaring, and murder—originates from theatrical practice, as does Kolin's interview with Kent Thompson, artistic director of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Scott McMillin provides a careful analysis of the copytexts for the Quarto and Folio texts, which he believes to have originated from performance scripts. Together, these essays help us to reconsider Othello as a play to be realized in the theater.

Essays that purport to be on the "cutting edge," such as Bryan Reynolds and Joseph Fitzpatrick's analysis of "transversal power," are not as effective as more traditional essays. For example, David Bevington's view of Othello as the portrait of a marriage, James Schiffer's exploration of the Sonnets as a context for Shakespeare's tragedy, and Jay L. Halio's consideration of Shakespeare's recrafting of Cinthio's original story combine old-fashioned close reading and good sense that continue to yield fresh insights.

Interdisciplinary approaches sometimes work well, too. Peter Erickson's discussion of black-and-white images in Renaissance painting as a frame for Othello's color-coded language beautifully demonstrates the imbrication of sexual and racial meanings in this period. John Gronbeck-Tedesco explores distinctions between morality and ethics, and how that distinction affects Iago's placement within the play. But Mary F. Lux, who looks at the text from the biologist's viewpoint, seems off the radar screen when she claims that Desdemona's pallor indicates anemia and that Othello's fit suggests malaria.

Several essays successfully rehistoricize Othello. Thomas Moisan sees the workings of state power in the Duke's presence in Act 1, more so in his absence in Act...