Description
Relational dynamics in translating otherness, misogyny and female agency in Othellο (Stavroula Apostolopoulou)
Although timelessly famous, Shakespeare’s Othello is mostly known as the play of jealousy, whereas 21st-century readings mostly foreground the themes of racism and misogyny. The present study examines relational dynamics cross-culturally discourse and how they developed over time. More specifically, the study analyses blackness, misogyny and female agency in two Greek target versions (1968, 2001) of the play. The study uses naturalistic evidence to show how target versions frame themes differently. It used a questionnaire addressing bilingual respondents with respect to how they perceive shifts in the two target versions. Findings show that the latest version introduces shifts in Iago’s and other characters’ discourse make-up, in how the item Moor is translated depending on who is using it, highlighting racism, or how sexist and misogynistic discourse emerges. The latest version never reaches the level of offensiveness of the earlier version, and questionnaire respondents confirm these findings. The significance of the study lies in that it shows translation to be a platform for variation in how identities are constructed and how translation informed by current readings of a literary piece reflects societal change.
