Chapter 4. Othello on the German stage

Abstract

The German Shakespeare narrative afforded no role for a sub-Saharan Africa ‘blackamoor’, ‘a person of color’, as tragic hero. This may account for why Othello has been the Shakespearean tragedy least translated and performed on German stages. In the Schlegel-Tieck translations (1798–1833) and in theater criticism Othello was usually referred to as a “tawny Moor” (Maure), from North Africa or the Levant, well into the twentieth century. After World War II, German society grew more diverse, racially, culturally, and linguistically, and translations as well as performances began to reflect the elements of racial, ethnic, and social conflict in the play. On occasion, Shakespeare’s ‘The Moor of Venice’ has even been renamed ‘Venice’s Nigger’. Globalization and the influx of refugees from Africa and the Middle East since 2000 have led to radical re-translations, tradaptations and performances that have questioned the canonized German version of Othello, the protagonist, and Othello, the play. As a result, twenty-first century performances have become forums for discussing issues of racism, ethnicity, cultural experience and sexuality as well as how to perform them.