| Abstrakt: |
This article uses Othello as a platform for interrogating the ongoing division of Cyprus, locating in the play and its paratexts the island's forgotten African, Jewish and Gypsy heritages. This polycultural Cyprus of Othello is mutable and multiple, a nexus point in the Greater Middle East. However, the vision of Cyprus as a fluid site of difference and exchange was disavowed in the twentieth century in order to advance modern ethnonationalism – through which Cypriots are seen as either Greek or Turkish and eternally in opposition. Not only does Othello's internal conflict anticipate that of the collective Cypriot psyche but, moreover, the play as a whole hints at the various ways Cyprus was understood in England prior to modern ethnonationalism. In this way, Othello offers us the opportunity to restate the diversity of Cypriot culture and society then and now, an understanding of the island essential to any future reunification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
