PAULA VOGEL’S PARODIC RE(PRESENTATION) OF SHAKESPEARE’S OTHELLO THROUGH DESDEMONA: A PLAY ABOUT A HANDKERCHIEF

Abstract

The current study analyzes Paul Vogel′s play, Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief as a parodic re(presentation) of Shakespeare′s Othello. Vogel appropriates Shakespeare’s Othello and presents it to American audience in a different temporal and spatial setting with a sense of critical distance. Vogel reverses the whole pragmatics of Shakespeare’s play. The study uses different parodic tools such as kynicism, burlesque, humor and parody for probing Vogel’s play to deconstruct the dominant ideology represented by Shakespeare′s Othello. The concept of kynicism by Peter Sloterdijk developed in his Critique of Cynical Reason (1983) is used as a tool for the critique of patriarchal ideology of Shakespeare’s Othello. Further, the study uses parody as a critical lens subverting the official ideology of Shakespeare′s Othello through Paula Vogel′s play. Linda Hutcheon′s parody (1989) and Terry Eagleton’s theory of Humor (1939) serve useful tools for examining Vogel’s play as a critique of the Venetian high culture represenetd in Shakespare’s Othello. The study highlights how Paula Vogel transforms the tragic narrative of Othello into comic mood through these parodic techniques. Further, Vogel transforms Emilia and Desdemona from silenced voices into assertive and articulative beings through her play. In short, Vogel makes representation of a representation and exposes the politics of representation of Shakespeare’s Othello through her play.