“My Skin Is Not Me”: The Transformations of William Shakespeare’s Othello in Ann-Marie MacDonald’sGoodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)and Djanet Sears’sHarlem Duet

Abstract

AbstractBothGoodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)(1990) andHarlem Duet(1997) are Canadian feminist appropriations of William Shakespeare. Both deal, at least partly, withOthello, and both can be considered subversive re-visions of Shakespeare’s play which aim to articulate oppositional intervention in the canon. These similarities notwithstanding, the plays have not often been studied concurrently. Also, while several critics have explored them, mostly separately, in terms of their adaptation/appropriation of Shakespeare, seeking to spell out the transformations they have brought to the “original” text, little has been said about how the iconic figure of Shakespeare still holds sway in these new dramas, albeit in different ways and to varying degrees. Likewise, their dramatization of the character of Othello remains rather understudied. This essay explores the “new” Othellos of the two plays, contending that their positioning in the two texts evinces some similarities while their characterization differs widely, given the plays’ generic difference, but mostly the two playwrights’ rather divergent feminist perspectives which, in turn, substantially shape the plays’ respective appropriation techniques.