The Moor’s Political Colour: Race and Othello in Poland

Authors

  • Anna Kowalcze-Pawlik University of Lodz, Poland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.22.10

Keywords:

Othello in Poland, blackface in theatre, brownface in theatre, race in translation

Abstract

This paper provides a brief outline of the reception history of Othello in Poland, focusing on the way the character of the Moor of Venice is constructed on the page, in the first-published nineteenth-century translation by Józef Paszkowski, and on the stage, in two twentieth-century theatrical adaptations that provide contrasting images of Othello: 1981/1984 televised Othello, dir. Andrzej Chrzanowski and the 2011 production of African Tales Based on Shakespeare, in which Othello’s part is played by Adam Ferency (dir. Krzysztof Warlikowski). The paper details the political and social contexts of each of these stage adaptations, as both of them employ brownface and blackface to visualise Othello’s “political colour.” The function of blackface and brownface is radically different in these two productions: in the 1981/1984 Othello brownface works to underline Othello’s overall sense of alienation, while strengthening the existing stereotypes surrounding black as a skin colour, while the 2011 staging makes the use of blackface as an artificial trick of the actor’s trade, potentially unmasking the constructedness of racial prejudices, while confronting the audience with their own pernicious racial stereotypes.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Anna Kowalcze-Pawlik, University of Lodz, Poland

Anna Kowalcze-Pawlik, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Department of the British and Commonwealth Studies at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz, where she teaches literature and cultural studies, serves as the academic secretary of International Studies: Interdisciplinary Political and Cultural Journal and works at the International Shakespeare Centre. Her main fields of research are reception of Shakespeare in Poland, history of translation and cultural history of emotions. Dr Kowalcze-Pawlik is a board member of the Polish Shakespeare Society, where she has been serving as the vice president since 2018. She is also an active member of BSA, SAA, ESRA, ISA, as well as RSA. Her most recent publications discuss sound and Shakespeare performance, Polish reception of Ophelia as well the figure of witness in Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam.

References

A.O. “Otello.” Radio i Telewizja, 34, 20 sierpnia 1967.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3034481

Ahmed, Sara. Cultural Politics of Emotion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
Google Scholar

Balogun, Bolaji, and Remi Joseph-Salisbury. “Black/white mixed-race experiences of race and racism in Poland.” Ethnic and Racial Studies (2020): 1-18.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1729390

Cetera, А. „Żytomierski Otello: O Tłumaczeniu Szekspira przez Ks. Ignacego Hołowińskiego w latach trzydziestych XIX wieku.” Волинь-Житомирщина 19 (2009): 20-43.
Google Scholar

Cetera-Włodarczyk Anna and Alicja Kosim. Polskie przekłady Shakespeara w XIX wieku. Część 1. Zawody, strategie, recepcja, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2019.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323538660

Cieślak, Jacek. „Opowieści afrykańskie według Szekspira-spektakl Krzysztofa Warlikowskiego.” Rzeczpospolita 5 Dec 2011. 7 May 2019 www.rp.pl/artykul/764923-Opowiesci-afrykanskie-wedlug-Szekspira---spektakl-Krzysztofa-Warlikowskiego
Google Scholar

Cieślak, Jacek. „Sześciogodzinne widowisko, długie jak przemówienia Fidela” Rzeczpospolita nr 283 6 grudnia 2011. 3 Oct 2020 http://encyklopediateatru.pl/artykuly/128619/koniec-swiata-samcow-i-brutali
Google Scholar

Cleaver, Eldridge. Soul on Ice. New York: Dell, 1968.
Google Scholar

Dolczewski, Zygmunt. „Pieczęć z murzynkiem czyli sarmacka egzotyka.” Pamiętnik Biblioteki Kórnickiej 29, 2009: 267-275.
Google Scholar

Drobnik-Rogers, Justyna. Krzysztof Warlikowski’s Theatre and the Possiblity of Encounter. Unpublished Ph.D. diss. University of Manchester, 2012.
Google Scholar

Duggan, Patrick. Trauma-Tragedy: Symptoms of Contemporary Performance. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt212165r

Eddo-Lodge, Reni, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.
Google Scholar

Essed, Philomena. Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Theory. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1991, vol. 2.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483345239

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. London: Pluto Press, 2008.
Google Scholar

Fabiszak, Jacek. “Shakespeare’s Histories / Polish History: Television Productions of Henry IV (1975), Richard III (1989) and Othello (1981/1984).” Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance 4 (2007): 59-65.
Google Scholar

Figzał-Janikowska, Magdalena. “The Circle of Outcasts: Krzysztof Warlikowski’s ‘African Tales by Shakespeare.’” Cervantes, Shakespeare y la Edad de Oro de la escena. Ed. Jorge Braga Riera, Javier J. González Martínez, Miguel Sanz Jiménez. Madrid, 2018: 619-631.
Google Scholar

Grzegorzewska, Małgorzata. „Cena funta mięsa” Teatr 2 (2012). 30 April 2019. www.teatr-pismo.pl/po-premierze/72/cena_funta_miesa/
Google Scholar

Hornback, Robert. “The Folly of Racism: Enslaving Blackface and the ‘Natural’ Fool Tradition.” Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England 20 (2007): 46-84.
Google Scholar

Hutcheon, Linda. The Politics of Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203426050

Kolin, Philip, ed. Othello: New Critical Essays. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Google Scholar

Krzyżanowski, Michał. “Discursive Shifts and the Normalisation of Racism: Imaginaries of Immigration, Moral Panics and the Discourse of Contemporary Right-Wing Populism.” Social Semiotics (2020): 1-25.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2020.1766199

Kujawińska Courtney, Krystyna. “Ira Aldridge, Shakespeare, and Color-Conscious Performances in Nineteenth-Century Europe.” Colorblind Shakespeare. Ed. Ayanna Thompson. New York: Routledge, 2006. 121-140.
Google Scholar

Kujawińska Courtney, Krystyna. “Othello in Poland, a Prevailingly Homogeneous Ethnic Country.” The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Global Appropriation. Ed. Christy Desmet, Sujata Iyengar, and Miriam Jacobson. New York: Routledge, 2019. 243-253.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315168968-22

Lease, Bryce. After '89: Polish Theatre and the Political. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7228/manchester/9781784992958.001.0001

Linde, Samuel Boguslaw. Słownik języka polskiego. Vol. 2. Part 1. Warszawa, 1809.
Google Scholar

Łaziński, M. „‘Murzyn’ zrobił swoje, czy ‘Murzyn’ może odejść?: historia i przyszłość słowa ‘Murzyn’ w polszczyźnie.” Poradnik Językowy 4 (2007): 47-56.
Google Scholar

Mbembe, Achille. Necropolitics. Trans. Steven Corcoran. Durham and London: Duke University Press 2019.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1131298

Meijers, Constant. “African Tales. September 20, 2012. Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam. 13 Oct 2020 https://www.theaterkrant.nl/recensie/african-tales/nowy-teatr/
Google Scholar

Mielczarek, Lida. Polska recepcja tragedii Otello Williama Szekspira w świetle studiów krytycznoliterackich i adaptacji teatralnych. Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Lodz, 2015.
Google Scholar

Momro, Jakub. „Zakaz reprezentacji i reprezentacja zakazana (Pankowski, Libera, Nancy).” Didaskalia 107 (2012): 76-85.
Google Scholar

Niemcewicz Julian Ursyn. Pamiętniki Juliana Ursyna Niemcewicza, 1804-1807. Dziennik drugiej podróży do Ameryki, Lwów 1873.
Google Scholar

Niziołek, Grzegorz. Warlikowski extra ecclesiam. Kraków: Homini 2008.
Google Scholar

Olbrychski, Daniel. Anioły wokół głowy, Gdańsk: Tower Press, 2000.
Google Scholar

Opowieści afrykańskie według Szekspira. Premiere: Oct 5, 2011, Liege, 2 Dec 2011 The Dramatyczny Theatre, Warsaw. Direction: Krzysztof Warlikowski, Set design: Małgorzata Szczęśniak, music: Paweł Mykietyn. “African Tales by Shakespeare,” MIT Global Shakespeares Video & Performance Archive, https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/african-tales-by-shakespeare-warlikowski-krzysztof-2011/#video=african-tales-by-shakespeare-trailer
Google Scholar

Othello [Otello]. Dir. Andrzej Chrzanowski. Perf. Daniel Olbrychski, Piotr Fronczewski, Joanna Pacuła. TVP, 1981. teleplay.
Google Scholar

P. Piotrowski, „Zbigniew Libera: anarchia i krytyka.” Zbigniew Libera. Prace z lat 1982-2008. Ed. D. Monkiewicz. Warszawa: Zachęta Narodowa Galeria Sztuki, BWA Wrocław – Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej, 2009.
Google Scholar

Pyrkosz, Aleksandra. „Bluźnierstwo sceniczne.” Teatralia 16/23.04.12. 5 maja 2012. 15 Oct 2020 http://encyklopediateatru.pl/artykuly/139955/bluznierstwo-sceniczne
Google Scholar

Radecki, Adam. „Oddalić wielki powrót ojców.” Dwutygodnik Strona Kultury 70 25 stycznia 2012 online. 16 Oct 2020 http://encyklopediateatru.pl/artykuly/131679/oddalic-wielki-powrot-ojcow
Google Scholar

Reyes, Angelita D. “Performativity and Representation in Transnational Blackface: Mammy (USA), Zwarte Piet (Netherlands), and Haji Firuz (Iran).” Atlantic Studies, 16:4 (2019): 521-550, DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2018.1490508
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14788810.2018.1490508

Shakespeare, William. Othello. The Norton Shakespeare. Eds. Stephen Greenblatt et al. 3rd ed. New York and London: WW Norton, 2016.
Google Scholar

Soszyński, Paweł. “Uwięzieni w Szekspirze.” Dwutygodnik Strona Kultury 71 online 25 stycznia 2012. 16 Oct 2020 http://encyklopediateatru.pl/artykuly/131674/uwiezieni-w-szekspirze
Google Scholar

Śmiechowicz, Olga. Polish Theatre After the Fall of Communism: Dionysus Since'89. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018.
Google Scholar

Tazbir, Janusz. „Sarmaci o Abisynii: stereotypy i wiedza.” Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce 41 (1997): 89-110.
Google Scholar

Urbaniak, Mike. „Ten teatr jest skandalem.” Interview with Zbigniew Libera. magazynwaw.com/25.11, 28 listopada 2011. 16 Oct 2020 http://encyklopediateatru.pl/artykuly/128195/warszawa-skandal-czy-skandalik-z-plakatem-nowego
Google Scholar

Wekker, Gloria. White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822374565

Zarzycka, Grażyna. “‘A Negro Did What He Was Supposed to Do…’ A Study of Some Ethnic Metaphors.” Etnolingwistyka. Problemy języka i kultury 18 (2006): 281-293.
Google Scholar

Zbigniew Libera. https://culture.pl/en/artist/zbigniew-libera 16 Oct 2020.
Google Scholar

Żurowski, Andrzej. Myślenie Szekspirem. Warszawa: Pax, 1983.
Google Scholar

Downloads

Published

2020-12-30

How to Cite

Kowalcze-Pawlik, A. (2020). The Moor’s Political Colour: Race and Othello in Poland. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, 22(37), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.22.10