The Representation of the Renaissance Woman/man in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and Othello
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Date
2010-10-20
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university Mouloud Mammeri of Tizi-Ouzou
Abstract
This modest dissertation has for purpose the exploration of the
major Renaissance themes in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
(1596) and Othello (1603). It aims to examine Shakespeare’s
representation of the Renaissance woman/man through his Renaissance
Venetian characters. To fulfil our study, we have relied on the New
Historicist theoretical assumptions that stress the importance of the
social, historical and cultural contexts in the study and interpretation of
literary texts. Indeed, the Renaissance context of the plays under study
determines largely Shakespeare’s dramatic representation of the
Renaissance females and males. We have divided our work into three
chaptars. We have devoted the first chapter to the general historical
background that represents a necessary step for our analysis. We have
introduced first the main aspects of the Italian Renaissance focusing on
the emerging philosophy of Humanism and Individualism with its new
perception of man. Then, we have given an insight to the Elizabethan/
Shakespearean England, stressing the English interest in the Italian
Renaissance. In the second chapter, we have tried to examine the
Renaissance woman/man as a representative of the divergent Renaissance
themes of subjectivity, individual will, independence, self-interest,
tradition, communal ties, and social conventions. In the third chapter, we
have examined the emotional life of the Renaissance woman/man in
relation to the prevailing social conventions about racial difference.
Finally, we have concluded that the Renaissance woman/man lives in a
state of ‘inbetweeness’ embodying the ambivalent attitudes and thoughts
of the transitional period. Therefore, the Renaissance woman/man can
never be identified as an individual who has completely transgressed the
impositions of the collective organic life.
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120p.;30cm.(+cd)
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