Black Lives Othello: An American Tragedy, (Hardcover)

<p><b>The story of Othello's American life, showing that the hero's tragedy is America's own--from a best-selling writer and expert scholar</b></p><p>While Shakespeare's <i>Othello</i>, with a Black man as its tragic hero, was first staged in 1604, over two hundred years would pass before anyone other than a White actor in blackface played him. And it wasn't until Paul Robeson's star turn in 1943 that a Black actor played Othello on Broadway. Othello's American life has long been intertwined with that of the nation, a journey marked by slavery, judicial lynching, Jim Crow, and the ongoing struggle for Black equality--a past that some would prefer to whitewash.</p><p>In this deeply researched book, James Shapiro retraces Othello's American afterlife and challenges those sanitizing efforts. Othello was the name of a slave ship that sailed from Rhode Island. It was the name of an enslaved man executed for allegedly participating in a slave uprising in colonial New York. And it was the name Benjamin Franklin chose to call a child he had enslaved. Othello's American life is a story of triumph as well as tragedy, embodied in the performances of such exceptional Black actors as Ira Aldridge, Paul Robeson, and Denzel Washington.</p><p>Drawing on literary, social, political, and theater history, Shapiro shows that Othello's tragedy is inseparable from America's own, reminding us of all that remains unresolved in the nation's history.</p>

• Black Lives Othello: An American Tragedy, (Hardcover)
• Author: James Shapiro
• ISBN: 9780300267709
• Format: Hardcover
• Publication Date: 2027-02-02
• Page Count: 224