{"id":2767,"date":"2025-01-27T13:06:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T18:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/?p=2767"},"modified":"2025-04-18T13:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T17:54:17","slug":"from-othello-to-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/research-highlights\/from-othello-to-other\/","title":{"rendered":"From Othello to \u2018other\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As Clark\u2019s resident Shakespeare scholar, English Professor Justin Shaw helps his students perceive why the Bard continues to move audiences to tears, to laughter, to deeper understandings of human motivation\u2014and also why his words still matter since he last put quill pen to paper in 1610. In his research, he unearths prescient lessons about contemporary political tumult, social struggles, and class conflicts embedded in stage pieces written 400 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Justin<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In search of the inclusive Shakespeare<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see real-life people\u2019s situations reflected in Shakespeare,\u201d Shaw<\/a> says. The playwright is not the be-all and end-all of literature studies, but \u201che provides a helpful lens through which we can read the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaw\u2019s research interests lie in how Early Modern\/Renaissance dramatists and poets use \u201cthe language of melancholy\u201d in areas of race or otherness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just feeling down or anxious,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s power versus powerlessness. It\u2019s the feeling of living in the world as a person who is queer, or who is \u2018othered\u2019 in some way, or, in different points in history, as a woman. It\u2019s the feeling of living in the U.S. right now, especially in certain states, where there is anxiety about moving through life. It\u2019s being Black in a world where you don\u2019t know how a police encounter will end for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some characters in Shakespeare are trying to exist and thrive in an oppressive world. \u201cOthello is a respectable Black man who just wants a seat at the table,\u201d Shaw says, \u201cwhile Aaron the Moor in Titus Andronicus <\/em>wants to destroy the table.\u201d In The Merchant of Venice<\/em>, Shylock is \u201cthe other\u201d because he is a Jew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaw is a co-editor of the 2024 book Inclusive <\/em>Shakespeares: Identity, Pedagogy, Performance, <\/em>a collection of essays on making Shakespeare studies more inclusive for students, teachers, performers, and audiences who have occupied a historically marginalized position in relation to his poetry and plays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Department of English<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Clark\u2019s resident Shakespeare scholar, English Professor Justin Shaw helps his students perceive why the Bard continues to move audiences to tears, to laughter, to deeper understandings of human motivation\u2014and also why his words still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":2794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"research-initiaive","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-2767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-highlights","tag-department-of-english"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Othello to \u2018other\u2019 | Clark University | Clark University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/research-highlights\/from-othello-to-other\/\" 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