is othello a racist play? you decide...

Is Othello a racist play? Should Othello be played in blackface? Iago says, "Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners." In the context of the  play this week, we will discuss issues of appearance vs. reality, sexist language, racism and loyalty.  We will continue our study of William Shakespeare's Othello this week and explore these questions. 
      Parallel Reading Assignment: In this unit, you are responsible for several tasks. You should begin thinking about what play you plan to watch or read for your parallel analysis. Your parallel reading assignment for this unit, is to watch or read another  play and make comparisons to our study of Othello in an analytical essay.   An analytical essay means you will need to present some type of argument, or claim, about what you are analyzing.  To do this, you must break the topic down into parts and provide evidence, either from the text/film or from your own research, that supports your claim. The essay will be in MLA format (please see attached Word document) and will focus on one aspect of both plays like characterization, author's style, themes etc.. DUE Mon October 8, 2018. submitted on www.schoology.com (please go to the assignment description online for more details AND a Word template).   ​

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Class Announcements

Romeo and Juliet Performance in the Wilson Studio Theatre (The Black Box) 9/21-9/23 ​cccepa.tix.com/Schedule.aspx?OrgNum=4769&framed=true 
​Tutoring: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:45 -5:00 pm 
Writing a Critical Lens Analysis Essay: Your assignment is to construct an argumentative essay that defends the critical lens that you feel provides modern society with the most compelling view of literature (choose among Historical, Cultural, or Feminist for this assignment). You will support the claim with valid reasoning and with relevant and sufficient evidence from your reading and observations. We will write this essay in class on October 1st and 2nd, 2018. Begin thinking which critical lens you will write about and conduct your own outside research using the Galileo database in  www.cobb.mackinvia.com 
See the handout for more information. 

Weekly Announcements

Monday: Othello Act 1, Scene 2-3/ Themes Appearance and reality pg. 36, Honesty, trust and loyalty pg. 38, The role of women Sexist language pg. 40 
​Tuesday:  Close read and analysis of Othello Act 2, 1 
Wednesday: Close read and analysis Othello Act 2, 3 
Thursday:  Othello Learning Centers Alcohol Awareness Campaign pg. 82, Iago’s diary pg. 80, Thought-track Iago pg. 84, Build Epithets and Statues pg. 90 
Friday:  Othello and Blackface podcast; Director decisions pg. 92