02 Tuesday March 29

On March 29th 2011, we began with a quiz and then a group had their presentation discussing our readings from the previous night. The topic for the class was the differences between Cultural Materialism and New Historicism. Cultural Materialism challenges a text that has been described as transcendental or timeless, while New Historicism studies text as a marginal reflection of the past. After we were introduced to the two theories we separated into groups and discussed The Lady and the Blackamoor. We remarked the Moor was categorized as evil by raping and killing the Lord’s wife, murdering his children, and manipulating the Lord to cut off his nose. These sins further describe the theory of why Moor’s are black. This theory described three possibilities; one being climax, which was quickly rejected. The other two propositions include sin and infection. It is thought that Ham had sinned and God punished him by making his children dark. The class took these speculations along with the theories of Cultural Materialism and New Historicism and began to apply them towards Othello. We discovered Cultural Materialism involves dissidence, while New Historicism shows entrapment. A theorist looking at Cultural Materialism would view the beginning of Othello as him resisting the Moor’s stereotype. However by the end, a New Historicist would say he was repressed and fell into the Moor’s stereotype of an evil savage. As we continue to read Othello we will find more incidents where both Cultural Materialism and New Historicism are discovered.