Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad: A Reconsideration of the Iraqi Sectarian Conflict through the Eyes of Shakespeare

Abstract

For the last years, Shakespeare has been the subject of considerable critical and artistic scrutiny —a matter that situates his dramatic heritage far beyond its original Elizabethan context and places it within a spectrum of different historical and cultural contexts. This paper aims at examining Romeo and Juliet as a universal love story that is labeled so because of its timelessness and its relevance to all ages, societies, and conditions. The following study argues that the Iraqi version of Romeo and Juliet is a political drama that echoes a collective traumatic experience engendered by the aftermath of 2003, namely the sectarian conflict. It attempts to answer the following question: how does Monadhil Daoud Albayati recontextualizes the Shakespearian version of Romeo and Juliet to dramatize the collective Iraqi experience that is drenched in a bloody sectarian conflict. Theoretically, the paper draws on two different theories which significantly echo the different aspects the play indicates implicitly or explicitly. It draws on the theory of intertextuality, trauma theory, as well as other aspects related to the determination of Iraq's collective consciousness. The following paper, in fact, identifies the interrelated magnitude of the Iraqi overwhelming sectarian experience in the aftermath of 2003.