Shakespeare's Othello: Camouflaged Identities and Enigmatic Discourses

Shakespeare's dramatic works are semantically multi-dimensional due to their embodiment of enigmatic discourses and anamorphic portrayals or camouflaged identities. Inevitably this creates a great deal of semantic ambiguity and, thereof, much hermeneutic complexity, which renders any interpreta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Interactions (Izmir, Turkey) Turkey), 2020-03, p.137
Main Author: Umunc, Himmet
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Criticism and interpretation
Identity
Shakespeare, William (English playwright)
Tragedies (Drama)
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Shakespeare's dramatic works are semantically multi-dimensional due to their embodiment of enigmatic discourses and anamorphic portrayals or camouflaged identities. Inevitably this creates a great deal of semantic ambiguity and, thereof, much hermeneutic complexity, which renders any interpretative attempt infinitely challenging, while augmenting the dramatic effect of the plays. In this regard, Othello, which is a play of dissimilation or dissemblance, can be regarded as a plausible and relevant example. The progress of the action in the play is heightened through a complicated and anamorphic interaction that involves Iago, Othello, Desdemona, and some other subordinate characters. With their camouflaged identities and enigmatic discourses, they become the chief agents of the tragedy in the play. So this article is a focused study of Shakespeare's anamorphic portrayal of Iago, in particular, through a set of enigmatic discourses that gesture to his camouflaged identity as well as to his dissembling relationship with Othello and Desdemona.
ISSN:1300-574X