TY - JOUR AU - Golemi, Marinela PY - 2020/12/30 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Othello in the Balkans: Performing Race Rhetoric on the Albanian Stage JF - Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance JA - MS VL - 22 IS - 37 SE - Articles DO - 10.18778/2083-8530.22.08 UR - https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/szekspir/article/view/9363 SP - 125-138 AB - <p>This essay examines the racialized rhetoric in Fan Noli’s 1916 <em>Othello </em>translation and the racialized performance techniques employed in A.J. Ricko’s 1953 National Theatre of Albania production. Hoping to combat racial discrimination in Albania, Noli’s translation of <em>Othello </em>renders the Moor an exceptional Turk whose alienation in Venice was designed to mirror the Albanophobic experiences of Albanian immigrants. Moreover, the Albanian <em>Othello </em>can serve as a platform for addressing ethno-racial tensions between Albanians and Turks, northern and southern Albanians, and Albanians of color and white Albanians. Both Noli and Ricko believed there was an anti-racist power inherent within Shakespeare’s play. In the end, however, the race-based rhetoric in the Albanian language, the use of blackface make-up in performance, and the logic and rhetoric of Shakespeare’s play itself challenged these lofty goals for race-healing.</p> ER -