Othello and Crescent Essay

Introduction Present essay provides a comparative psychoanalysis of Shakespeares Othello and Abu-Jabers crescent(prenominal) in terms of locating identical and opposite fores. The theme that was chosen is representation of Arabness as social, individual and ethnical category. T here is no denying the importance of the situation that both in all kit express the fate of Arab large number in westerly civilization, including Hesperian attitudes to them, their own comprehension of westward bearing of life and traditions and their transaction with other people.Moreover, both works serve as the instruments for revealing ban contours of occidental societies, including racist prejudices, which is curiously evident in Othello. Based on the latter reservations, present essay defends the thesis, which may be formulated as follows Shakespeares Othello and Abu-Jabers Crescent have much in common due to the fact that down the stairs recurrent symbols and themes, such as love, be trayal etc. lies the profound theme of Arabness, reflected through the prism of civilizations interchange, conflict and contradiction.The comparative analysis of Othello and Crescent both Othello and Crescent have Arab people, found themselves in certain roles inside Western civilization, as their main protagonists. The conflict mingled with them and Western civilization takes blank space on incompatible thematic levels, explained by the difference in plots and historic surrounding. Sirine, the main protagonist of Cresent, is a chef at Lebanese restaurant in Los Angeles with Middle-Eastern cuisine. Her surrounding consists of the Arab people, many of whom were exiled or emigrated from Iraq due to political repressions.Sirines Arabness is accomplished by her sentimental intimacy to Iraqi uncle and a great touch on in Iraqi history, culture and Muslim traditions in general. Notwithstanding the fact, that Sirine is productive in America, she is rather lone(a) and still feels he rself an immigrant, living in outsider and unfriendly culture. The latter feeling of loneliness is well described by the friend of Sirine, called Um-Nadia The loneliness of the Arab is a terrible thing it is all-consuming.it threatens to swallow him whole when he leaves his own country, even though he marries and travels and talks to friends 24 hours a day. (Abu Jaber,78) Hence, it is important to note that Sirines Arabness and conflicting status within Western civilization are not comprise in repoint terms and notions, bearing on direct political connotations. As Nouri Gana justly suggests about Abu Jabers new(a), perhaps one of the most glowing virtues of the novel is that it awakens the political in the reader by craftily staging how it bears on the individual and communal on a day-to-day basis (Gana, 237).The homogeneous may be said about Shakespeares Othello, where Arabness is also not addressed directly, solely essentially mediated through thematic, symbolical and heat henish discourses. contrary Crescents where the contradiction between cultures and civilization is visualized as the surdy of adaptation, assimilation and longing for native country, Arabness in Othello is established mainly in racist terms. However, the latter racism should also be understood as the instruments by means of which Shakespeare debunks aggressive, relentless, coward character of such members of Western civilization as Iago.The Arabness of Othello is initially accomplished through the mechanism of exoticization, when he is named not by name, just as berth and extravagant quaint, which immediately creates mental border between civilizations. (Othello 1. 1. 58 and 1. 1. 37). Here, the direct characteristic in representing Arabness may be traced at the narrative level of Crescent. Unlike Othello, Hanif Al Eyad, who is an exiled Iraqi professor, does not live on direct racial prejudices, but problems of adapting to American society.What is more important, he has significant problem of integrating in Arab American community, which is already assimilated into the wider American culture. In fact, Hanif finds himself in a difficult position of finding new contours of his Arabness, as he meets with new conditions of its man in the American society. In the same vein, Sirine reconfigures her identity, when she starts working at Arab restaurant. Her bemused Arab roots come to existence, when she delves into her parents, old recipes and to begin cooking the favoritebut almost forgottendishes of her childhood (Abu Jaber, 22).Finally, when Hanif and Sirine meet, they are engaged in heathenish interchange Sirine educates him about American and Hanif opens the culture of Iraq and the Arab initiation to Sirine. In this way, the Arabness is constituted in the contradictory multi heathen way, when it becomes a mixture of American way of life, its contradictions, immigrants culture and post-9/11 anti-Muslim syndrome, negatively experienced by Arab peop le, living in the US.Therefore, the Arabness in Crescent and Othello are constituted in perspicuousively different ways. Othellos racial and cultural difference is the main source of legitimization for brutal behavior of Roderigo, Iago and others, who oppose the relationships between Othello and Desdemona. In fact, Desdemona is the only protagonist, which opposes particularization of cultural differences and represents universality of human relationships. She sees in Othello neither Arab, nor exotic man, but a man, whom she loves.The narrative in Othello is abundant with racial prejudices, which subroutine as the markers of Arabness. At the outset of the play, Iago wakes Brabantio up and tells him that an old b deprivation ram / Is tupping your white ewe (1. 1. 89-90), referring to Othello. The relations between Othello and Desdemona are also presented by Iago through racist discourse, your female child covered with a Barbary horse (1. 1. 112), and reminds Brabantio of genetic c onsequences for his family, youll have your nephews neigh to you, (1. 1. 112-18). opposite features of Othellos Arabness are reproduced mainly through the depiction of his temperament and here we find Shakespeares critical edge, which uses then dominant racial prejudices of position aristocracy to depict their defected nature. Othello is depicted by Shakespeare as lacking Western (Iago-type) virtues as cunningness, meanness, egoism, rationality, calculation, but endows him with trustful, kind, energetic temperament. The latter positive constitution of Arabness serves as the critique of Western society deficiencies and problems.Eventually, such features of Arabness result in tragic ending of Shakespeares play (Bartels, 458). Othello as Abu-Jaders protagonists also seems lonely in the Western serviceman, where all are against him. Pain of loss, exile and loneliness, however, is presented in Crescent in more sentimental quotidian way. For instance, it is evident when Sirines Iraqi un cle asks the Italian waiter in a restaurant Wouldnt you say that immigrants are sadder than other people? To which the latter responds, When we leave our dental plate we fall in love with our sadness. (Abu-Jaber, 78).Another important theme, which runs through Abu-Jabers novel is difficulty of cosmos Arab. This idea is mainly propagated by Sirines uncle and defended through telling mythical stories from Arab history, depicting the suffering of Arab people. The difficulty of being Arab is also presented at the level of racialized and politicized metaphors, which represent Arabness in Western world and in fact distort real culture of Arab people. In this way, Arabness is constituted as the ideological category, which has nothing to do with real life of Arab people (Gana, 241).The latter contradiction may be traced in Othello, when in fact our vision of the main protagonist is constituted by Oriental discourse. iodin of the major differences pertinent to the analyzed works is gene ral narrative liveliness in which the latter discussed contradictions are presented. The contradictions of being Arab in the Western world in Cresent are presented through the depiction of Arab community daily life. The experience of Sirine and Hanif is characterized by sentimental feelings, loneliness, psychological trauma etc.The conflict between cultures and civilizations is presented as the quotidian difficulties of communication, adaptation and active life. The romantic ties which united Sirine and Hanif may be described as the part of sentimental representation of Arabness in Abu-Jabars novel. However, as it was noted above, even such approach to narration reveals much of the tensions and contradictions, experienced by immigrant Arabs. Unlike Crescent, Othello represents the evidence of contradictions between Western and Eastern civilization, which results in tragic implications for the destiny of individual people.racial prejudices against Othello function as the legitimizat ion of Iagos plot against him. The differences between temperament and culture of Othello and his possible rivals, hence, should be understood as the main driving force of Shakespeares tragedy. Conclusion To sum it up, Arabness may be described as the central theme in both Shakespeares and Abu-Jabers works. It is represented on the level of human relations and is not directly interpreted in political manner, however, certain ideological and political interpretations may be found.Racial prejudices in Othello serve as a tool for debunking negative features of Western civilization and human/universal features, reflected in Othellos temperament. In Crescent, the Arabness is presented through the prism of immigrants difficulty of adaptation, permanent feeling of pain, loneliness and lack of identity. In this way, the discussed theme has both similarities and difference in the discussed novels, explained by their distinct genres, historical and cultural surrounding.Works CitedAbu-Jaber, Diana. Crescent. New York Norton, 2003. Bartels, E. C. Making More of the Moor Aaron, Othello, and Renaissance Refashioning of Race. Shakespeare Quarterly vol. 41 454, 1990. Gana, Nouri. In Search of Andalusia reconfiguring Arabness in Diana Abu-Jabers Crescent. Comparative Literature Studies. Vol. 45, no. 2, 2008. The Pennsylvania nation University, University Park, PA. Shakespeare, W. Othello. The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. David Bevington, 3d edition. Glenview, IL Scott, Foresman, 1980.