Group Presentations (pairs)
Presentations
You will have 15 minutes to present. Be sure to ground all your analyses on close reading of the text: avoid generalities and be as specific as you can!
Group 1 — Rewriting Race: Otelo da Mangueira and Shakespeare's Text
Watch the Brazilian adaptation Otelo da Mangueira and choose one scene to compare it to the Shakespeare text (e.g., 1.3 or 5.2). How does transplanting the story to a Rio favela reframe race, status, and belonging? Is Othello's outsider status about race, class, or both? What does the adaptation reveal that the original text keeps implicit? Each member should take one angle: the text, the adaptation, and the cultural context.
Group 2 — The Villain's Pleasure: Iago and Shylock
Both Iago and Shylock are constructed as threatening outsiders who pursue revenge. Compare one scene from each play (e.g., Othello 3.3 and Merchant of Venice 3.1). How does each character justify his actions? Is their hostility presented as understandable, monstrous, or both? What does each play want us to feel about them — and do those feelings sit comfortably? Divide work: one member on Iago, one on Shylock, one synthesizing the comparison.
Group 3 — Parody: Upstart Crow and Othello
Watch the Upstart Crow episode on Othello. How does the series transform the play into comedy — and what does that reveal about how we receive Shakespeare today? Discuss two key scenes (one from the episode, one from the play) and compare them closely. What does parody expose that straight performance conceals? What gets lost, what gets sharpened?
Download the 📼 episode here and open with VLC.
Group 4 — Translation as Rewriting (Merchant of Venice)
Compare one key passage in two Portuguese translations of Merchant of Venice — for instance, a speech like the "quality of mercy" speech (4.1) or the "Hath not a Jew eyes" speech (3.1). Does translation domesticate, elevate, or neutralize the rhetoric? Focus on how metaphors, syntax, and register shift between versions. Close reading of translation A, close reading of translation B, and synthesis on what the divergences reveal about the translators' assumptions.
Group 5 — Translation as Rewriting (Othello)
Compare one key passage in two Portuguese translations of Othello. Does translation domesticate, elevate, or neutralize the rhetoric? Focus on how metaphors, syntax, and register shift between versions. Close reading of translation A, close reading of translation B, and synthesis on what the divergences reveal about the translators' assumptions.
Group 6 — Desdemona and Portia: Agency and the Obedient Woman
Compare Desdemona (Othello 1.3, 4.2) and Portia (Merchant of Venice 1.2, 4.1). Both women are constrained by fathers and husbands, yet each finds ways to act. Where does their agency come from — and where does it break down? Is either woman subversive, or do both ultimately serve patriarchal outcomes?
Group 7 — Performance of Othello: Race as Construction
Compare two performances of Othello — Olivier (1965) vs. Fishburne (1995) or another adaptation. How does each actor's choices (voice, physicality, staging) construct race differently? Is race portrayed as essence, stereotype, or performance? One member on each production, one synthesizing: what has changed in how we stage Othello's blackness?
Group 8 — Performance of Merchant of Venice
Presentation Response Roles
During each presentation, three students in the audience will be assigned a role:
The Questioner
Prepare — or come up with — one genuine question aimed at the group's argument. Not a clarification ("what did you mean by...") but a challenge ("you argued X, but how do you account for Y?"). You have about 1 minute to ask your question. The group responds.
The Connector
Find a passage elsewhere in the play — not one the group used — that either supports or complicates their reading. Read it aloud (briefly) and say why it matters. You have about 2 minutes. The group may respond.
The Devil's Advocate
Take the opposite position from whatever the group argued. You don't have to believe it — your job is to push back and make them defend their reading. Keep it to 1–2 minutes. The group responds.