https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1171 Index de Sweet Desdemona (1968) fr 0 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1147 The two Othello spinoffs studied here, Not Now, Sweet Desdemona (1968) and Iago (1979), depict Othello relative to 1960s and 70s movements such as Pan Africanism, Black Power, Négritude, and U.S. Civil Rights.  In this political context, the staging of Othello provides the opportunity to redefine a pivotal play of Western Europe by adding an African perspective – to put the “Moor” back in “Moor of Venice.” With its focus on issues of interracial sex, love, marriage, deceit and murder, Othello intrigues contemporary theatre audiences and directors alike. These two productions push the boundaries of adaptation, and both share specific connections in their approach to reinventing Othello: a resistance to notions of uniform “nation” or “culture,” a desire to experiment with Shakespeare as a tool for engaging audiences in contemporary political dialogue, and a rejection of the trend of the 1960s and 70s toward a black separatist aesthetic, choosing instead to incorporate postcolonial iterations of feminism, womanism and transindigenous performance practice. These two plays use Shakespeare broadly and Othello specifically as a touchstone for Western imperialism and oppression, but a touchstone that invites interrogation.  These adaptations resist textual imperialism and the iconicity of Shakespeare specifically and Western literature more broadly, and they assert personal truths in favor of historical assertions of Truth.  In this way these are productions in the act of spinning off from the original text – they reveal that adaptation is dynamic rather than a state of fixed, derivative existence. They spin erratically, even at times a bit out of control, but they kick Shakespeare’s text into cultural action via the voices of African diaspora. The performances challenge the very concepts of original and derivative texts and invite the audience to see adaptation as a process of spectacular collision that creates new matter, which in turn spins into new systems of meaning. mer., 20 déc. 2017 12:48:07 +0100 sam., 28 déc. 2019 14:40:09 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1147