A Study Guide for Ann-Marie MacDonald's "Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. She refuses to accept the tragic implications that her name predicts. How did you like it? GradeSaver, 28 May 2022 Web. She is envisioned as an African woman, suggested by the name "Barbary" being not only a familiar variant of the name but a reference to northern Africa (the "Barbary coast") in Shakespeare's day. What I really wish is that she had used a longer form-narrative poem or novel.). Morrison's play marks the third major play focusing on Shakespeare's Desdemona composed by a modern female playwright, following Desdemona: A Play about a Handkerchief (1993) by Paula Vogel, and Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) (1988) by Ann-Marie MacDonald. He causes the ruin of quite a few characters in the play because of his uncontrollable jealousy and a feeling of revenge. i am definitely going to have to reread this several times but there is something stunning here. The entire play had a fluency to it that read like a poem. Desdemona as a performance product was a unique theatrical experience. The first version was written while I taught Literature in English at the Islamic Science University of Malaysia in 2004 and again in 2005. You have already flagged this document.Thank you, for helping us keep this platform clean.The editors will have a look at it as soon as possible. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds toupgrade your browser. 0000010021 00000 n Desdemona is an extraordinary narrative of words, music and song about Shakespeares doomed heroine, who speaks from the grave about the traumas of race, class, gender, war and the transformative power of love. Othello blindly sees coincidences as evidences. Toni Morrison transports one of the most iconic, central, and disturbing treatments of race in Western culture The words of Emilia and SaRan especially shined a new light on Desdemona and her place in Venetian society, Shakespeares play, and this text. 0000001611 00000 n Barbary used to tell Desdemona about lively stories that no woman ever told her. Viewed some portions of the play and music on YouTube. 0000009718 00000 n Men made the rules; women followed them. Your file is uploaded and ready to be published. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. how does . 0000010219 00000 n Her foils and rapt listeners are the other integral and re-imagined women of this Shakespeare tragedy: Emilia, Desdemona's servant and the wi. The Question and Answer section for Desdemona is a great These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. Desdemona is a collaboration among writer Toni Morrison, theater director Peter Sellars, and musician Rokia Traor. Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. I wanted more in the kind of way that I didn't want it to end. Desdemona study guide contains a biography of Toni Morrison, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. However, they are now living in a world where there are no racism, cultural differences, and prejudices. By using our site, you agree to our collection of information through the use of cookies. 0000003325 00000 n The play is a reimagining of William Shakespeares Othello from the viewpoint of Othellos wife, Desdemona. When Desdemona tries to suggest that Barbary was her best friend, she flatly disagrees. Her attempts to save first Desdemona, then Juliet, from their harrowing fates, result in a wild unpredictable ride through comedy and near-tragedy, as mild-mannered Constance learns to love, sword-fight, dance Renaissance-style, and master a series of disguises Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) a gender-bendy, big-hearted and crazily intelligent romp, where irony and anger sing in perfect harmony with innocence and poignancy. Get fucked. Being a daughter of a strict mother, Desdemona grows up knowing what is right and what is wrong. The story of Desdemona from Shakespeare's Othello is re-imagined by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison, Malian singer and songwriter Rokia Traor, and acclaimed stage director Peter Sellars. Euripides' Medea in The Merchant of Venice, Intimations of Feminism in Ancient Athens: Euripides Medea, Medeas Fractured Self on the Jacobean Stage: Websters Duchess of Malfi as a Case Study in Renaissance Readership, Silence, Speech and Gender in Shakespeares Othello: A Presentist, Palestinian Perspective, Silence, Speech and Gender in Shakespeare's Othello: A Presentist, Palestinian Perspective, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee: The Lasting Endurance of Shakespeares Voice in Modern-Day Literature, The Mad Othello: A Psychological Perspective, Shakespeare's Othello from the Perspective of Islam: 2005 -2015 (A), Review: 'Medea, Written in Rage' by Jean-Ren Lemoine (Didaskalia 14.8 (2018)), Scholarship Established on Toni Morrisons Work from 2000 to 2016. Desdemona is a collaboration between writer Toni Morrison, musician Rokia Traor and director Peter Sellars. They agreed that Sellars would stage Othello and Morrison would respond to in another way, resulting in her Desdemona. There were strict rules of deportment, solutions for every problem a young girl could have. From the richness of the original plays, the author harvested the extensive detail and profound imagery found in Shakespearean text. Download Desdemona full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. In William Shakespeare's Othello, Desdemona is beautiful and young, but also enigmatic: one cannot know exactly why she rejects her numerous Venetian suitors to marry the Moor. She taught me how to handle myself at table, how to be courteous in speech, when and how to drop my eyes, smile, curtsey. Takes the classic Othello and complete turns it upside down and offers a radical perspective. It means ill fated. 70 0 obj<>stream Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Unfortunately, Bookmate cannot review all the uploaded files due tolack oftechnical feasibility. It was first produced in Vienna in May 2011. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. One of the most powerful exchanges in the play is between Desdemona and her servant, Saran. These original contributions are among the first scholarly analyses of these latest additions to her oeuvre and make the volume a valuable . Throughout the show, Desdemona is forced to reckon . The official playscript of Desdemona was published in 2012 by Oberon Books, with a foreword written by the director Peter Sellars.[8]. Themes of love, marriage, feminism, society, racism, and slavery. Morrison induces an out-of-body experience through her poetry, music, and depth of emotional perception. I was wary, as I have a checkered history with Toni Morrisons novels, but this short dramatic piece is revelatory. Perhaps being born a girl gave them all they needed to know of what my life would be like. In Toni Morrison's 2012 play, however, Desdemona's voice and story dominate the stage. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available! Desdemona describes Barbary as a loving individual full of love and care. trailer (10 pages). What Morrison begins to do in fleshing out Desdemona's preparation for loving Othello and Othello's back story is brilliant; I wish she had done more. How to cite Desdemona for your reference list or bibliography: select your referencing style from the list below and hit 'copy' to generate a citation. The speech is short and precise. Written by AYUSHI SAINI, Khushi Grover and other people who wish to remainanonymous. On the surface, her world is rife with industrial pollution that ruins the health of poor factory workers while the idle rich indulge themselves in unheard-of luxury. Morrison's text, a series of monologues and dialogues spoken by an actress who plays Desdemona and channels various other characters, alternates with songs written and performed by Traor, a renowned Malian singer and composer. 0000065181 00000 n Desdemona explores her life before and after the events of Othello. Together with other colored maids in the play, they discreetly criticize Desdemona as naive, ignorant, and privileged. The story of Desdemona from Shakespeare's Othello is re-imagined by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison, Malian singer and songwriter Rokia Traor#233, and acclaimed stage director Peter Sellars. I argue that had the prohibition on theft been heeded by Emilia, several people would still be alive, including Desdemona and Othello. The impetus for the project came from a con-versation between longtime friends Peter Sellars and Toni Morrison, while Sellars was visiting My name is Desdemona. Afterwards, however, her brother Ferdinand and murder/avenger Bosola serve as her textual surrogates, driving the action to an uneasy conclusion that reworks classical revenge conventions, questions the possibility of attaining Senecan independence in Jacobean society, and represents the allures and dangers of reading classical texts from an early modern perspective. thissection. Barbary claims that she was Desdemonas slave but not a friend. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make yourown. Wonderfully written. 0000006507 00000 n I enjoyed Toni Morrisons writing style: she embraced Shakespeares language and made it her own. 12/5/2018 Toni Morrison's Desdemona invites us to listen not just hear Academic rigour, journalistic air Toni Morrison's Desdemona invites us . Once Othello is in Cyprus, Iago decides to work on his central plan. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Dido and Medea, classical exemplars of female independence, were deeply divided between their impulses toward revenge and Stoic patience. The majority of the songs are sung in Bambara, also known as Bamana, the national language of Mali. Desdemona and Othello come to terms in the place of undeath and Desdemona understands her participation in her murder. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. The manner in which Desdemona is murderedsmothered by a pillow in a bed covered in her wedding sheetsis symbolic: she is literally suffocated beneath the demands put on her fidelity. Desdemona grows in a society where women should assume roles dictated to them by men. 0000009970 00000 n The IAIS version is a less informal, written from memory, and highlights, among other things, political upheavals taking place at the time. No thoughts, head empty, since I have never read Othello. This paper follows the critical lines of feminism and psychoanalysis to argue that Othello is a conflict between female characters' moral voices and male figures' treacherous voices. Cooney indulges in luxurious, dizzying fantasy In Desdemona and the Deep, the spoiled daughter of a rich mining family must retrieve the tithe of men her father promised to the world below. Book Description Seminar paper from the year 1999 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich . The two versions differ in several ways. Desdemona grows in a society where women should assume roles dictated to them by men. This book presents two papers I prepared on Shakespeares Othello from the perspective of Islam. 0000008994 00000 n Perhaps my parents believed or imagined or knew my fortune at the moment of my birth. 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