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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. Othello the Negro

Author : Michael E. Sawyer

Published in: An Africana Philosophy of Temporality

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter relies upon a close reading of several texts: Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk, Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice, Melville’s Benito Cereno, and Ellison’s Invisible Man. The philosophical framework in this section is established by the thought of Sartre, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Lacan that are employed to assemble an account of the phenomenology of subaltern beings and their revolutionary ambitions.

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previous chapter It’s About Time

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Nancy. p. 7.

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick.

Malabou, Catherine. The Heidegger Change: On the Fantastic in Philosophy. SUNY: 2011. p. 201.

Malabou. p. 202.

Kantorowicz, Ernst H. The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. Princeton: 1957. p. 49.

Ibid.

The French word dépouillée is translated here as “bare,” but the connotation of the term is more akin to “plucked clean like the feathers from a chicken” or even a “depilatory” as in something capable of removing hair. This insight is indebted to a series of essential conversations with William Balang-Gaubert, Lecturer in French and Haitian Creole at the University of Chicago.

The French word une rampe is translated here as “ramp” to emphasize this reading’s understanding of this passage to be pointing to a place from which recovery is launched.

Peau noire, masques blancs. p. 6.

Gordon, Lewis. “Through the Hellish Zone of Nonbeing: Thinking through Fanon, Disaster, and the Damned of the Earth”. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Knowledge. V, Special Double-Issue, Summer 2007. p. 10.

Peau noire, masques blancs. Points: 1952. p. 6.

Ibid.

Ibid. pp. 6–7.

Ibid. p. 8.

Ibid.

Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Harper: 2008. p. 27.

Ibid. p. 41.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 277.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 425.

Ibid. p. 435.

Ibid. p. 433.

Ibid. p. 169.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 237.

Foucault, Michel. The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the College de France 1981–1982. Picador: 2005.

Ibid. p. 205.

Ibid. p. 206.

Ibid. p. 207.

Ibid. p. 206.

Here Foucault is referring to Seneca’s Letter 6 to Lucilius where he proposes that “[i]t’s incredible, I feel I am now making progress. It is not just an emendatio (correction). I am not content with mending my ways; I have the impression that I am being transfigured (transfiguari)” (Foucault p. 212).

Ibid. p. 212.

Ibid. pp. 212–213.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 208.

Ibid. pp. 213–214.

Ibid. p. 218.

Ibid. p. 249.

Foucault, Michel. The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1981–1982. Picador: 2005. p. 252.

Ibid. p. 255.

Ibid. p. 256.

Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Harper Perennial: 2008. p. 284.

Ibid. p. 285.

Ibid. p. 286.

Ibid. p. 288.

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Grove Press: 2008. p. 112.

I owe this insight to a series of conversations with William Balang-Gaubert of the University of Chicago.

Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs. p. 6.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. The Transcendence of the Ego: An Existential Theory of the Ego. Hill and Wang: 1960. p. 33.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 34.

Fanon. Black Skin, White Masks. pp. xiv–xv.

Sartre. The Transcendence of the Ego. pp. 40–41.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 43.

Ibid. p. 41.

Ibid. p. 44.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 45.

Fanon. Black Skin, White Masks. p. 90.

Fanon. Black Skin, White Masks. p. 91.

Sartre. Transcendence of the Ego. p. 60.

Ibid.

Ibid. 116f 21.

Ibid. pp. 60–61.

Ibid. pp. 61–64.

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice. Act I, Scene 3. Lines 378–382.

Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works: Second Edition. Editors: Wells, Stanley and Taylor, Gary. Oxford: 2005. p. 880.

Othello: Act I, Scene 3. Lines 63–64.

Ibid. Act I, Scene 3. Lines 89–94.

Ibid. Lines 126–130.

Ibid. Lines 131–137.

Ibid. Lines 147–168.

Ibid. p. 169.

Aesthetics p. 578.

Ibid.

Phenomenology §652 p. 583.

Ibid. §653 p. 583 (my italics).

Ibid. §658 p. 590.

Ibid. §668 p. 600.

Cavell, Stanley. Disowning Knowledge: In Six Plays of Shakespeare and his essay on Othello. Cambridge: 1987. p. 138.

Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. Norton Critical Edition: 1999. p. 11.

Othello. Act III, Scene 3. Lines 387–393.

Ibid. Line 133.

Ibid. Lines 347–365.

Hedrick, Donald. “Distracting Othello: Tragedy and the Rise of Magic”. PMLA. 129.4 (2014). p. 665.

James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins. p. 154.

Ibid. p. 157.

Fanon. Black Skin, White Masks. p. 1.

Ibid. p. 2.

Ibid. p. 1.

Fanon. Peau noire, masques blancs. p. 51.

Hachures /ˈhæʃʊərz/ are an older mode of representing relief. They show orientation of slope, and by their thickness and overall density they provide a general sense of steepness. Being non-numeric, they are less useful to a scientific survey than contours, but can successfully communicate quite specific shapes of terrain. They are a form of shading, although different from the one used in shaded maps (Wikipedia).

Fanon. Black Skin, White Masks. p. 45.

Ibid.

Othello. Act I Scene 1: Lines 86–91.

Ibid. Act I Scene 2: Lines 18–20.

100

Claude Nordey, L’homme de coleur, Coll. Présences, Plon., 1939.

101

Fanon. Black Skin, White Masks. p. 63.

102

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology. Citadel: 1956. p. 212.

103

Othello Act III Scene 3: Lines 443–444.

104

http://melvillesmarginalia.org/tool.php?id=31

105

Ibid. Act III, Scene 3. Lines 387–393.

106

Melville, Herman. Benito Cereno. Melville’s Short Novels: Norton: 2002. p. 34.

107

Ibid. p. 35.

108

Grandin, Greg. The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World. Metropolitan Books: 2014. p. 211.

109

Ibid. p. 197.

110

Ibid. p. 152.

111

Melville (Benito Cereno). p. 35.

Ibid. p. 36.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 38.

Ibid. p. 45.

Ibid. p. 90.

Rogin, Michael Paul. Subversive Genealogy: The Politics and Art of Herman Melville. Knopf: 1983. pp. 212–213.

118

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick, or the Whale.

119

Melville (Benito Cereno). p. 42.

120

Rogin. p. 90.

121

Ibid. p. 65.

122

Frank (editor). p. 290.

123

Melville (Benito Cereno). p. 93.

124

Ibid. p. 37.

125

Ibid.

126

Deleuze, Giles. Difference & Repetition. Columbia: 1994. p. 110.

127

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Grove: 2008. p. 89.

128

Frank. p. 282.

129

Melville (Benito Cereno). p 96.

Ibid. p. 91.

Ibid. p. 59.

Ibid. p. 63.

Ibid. p. 40.

Melville (Benito Cereno) p. 35.

Ibid. p. 58.

Ibid. p. 71.

Ibid. p. 39.

Ibid. pp. 46–47.

Ibid. p. 55.

Freeburg, Christopher. Melville and the Idea of Blackness: Race and Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century America. Cambridge: 2012. p. 127.

141

Melville (Moby-Dick). pp. 211–212.

142

Freeburg. p. 141.

143

Melville. (Benito Cereno) p. 84.

144

Ibid. pp. 115–116.

145

Melville (Benito Cereno). p. 39.

Ibid. p. 95.

Ibid. p. 65.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 90.

Ibid. p. 50.

Ibid. pp. 82–83.

James, C.L.R. Mariners, Renegades & Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In. Dartmouth: 2001. p. 112.

154

James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. p. 286.

155

Forrest, Leon. Lecture “The Mystery of Meaning in Melville’s Benito Cereno.” 1981 Allison Davis Lecture, Northwestern University. pp. 7–8.

Ibid. pp. 9–10.

Grandin. p. 92.

Forrest. p. 6.

Arendt, Hannah. On Revolution. Penguin Classics: 1977. pp. 96–98.

160

Forrest. p. 7.

161

Melville (Benito Cereno). p. 50.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid. p. 20.

Forrest. p. 17.

Melville(Benito Cereno). p. 50.

168

Ibid. p. 97.

169

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Vintage Books: 1995. p. 264.

170

Du Bois. Souls. p. 40.

Ibid. p. 11.

Ellison. p. 33.

Ibid. pp. 34–35.

Ibid. p. 36.

Ibid. pp. 43–44.

Ibid. p. 40.

Ibid. pp. 16–17.

Here Ellison adds Greek Tragedy to the text, the allusion to the plays assigned by Woodridge, and stands it on its head. The author’s target here is Sophocles and his Oedipus Rex. Rather than the classical formation of the Oedipus complex, Ellison plants the desire in the psyche of the fathers, the Founder and Trueblood, for their daughters.

Ibid. p. 43.

Ibid. p. 51.

Ibid. p. 53.

Ibid. p. 69.

Sekyi-Otu, Ato. 1996. Fanon’s dialectic of Experience. Harvard. p. 103.

Ellison. p. 3.

Ibid. pp. 3–4.

Ibid. p. 4.

Ibid. pp. 4–5.

Ibid. p. 6.

Ibid. pp. 6–7.

Ibid. p. 8.

Ibid. pp. 8–9.

Ibid.

Ibid. pp. 10–11.

Arendt, Hannah. 1977. On Revolution. New York: Penguin Classics.

Cavell, Stanley. 1987. Disowning Knowledge: In Six Plays of Shakespeare and His Essay on Othello. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Deleuze, Giles. 1994. Difference & Repetition. New York: Columbia University Press.

Du Bois, W.E.B. 1999. The Souls of Black Folk. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

Fanon, Frantz. 1952. Peau noire, masques blancs. Paris: Points.

———. 2008. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Press.

Foucault, Michel. 2005. The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the College de France 1981–1982. New York: Picador.CrossRef

Freeburg, Christopher. 2012. Melville and the Idea of Blackness: Race and Imperialism in Nineteenth Century America. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef

Gordon, Lewis. 2007. Through the Hellish Zone of Nonbeing: Thinking Through Fanon, Disaster, and the Damned of the Earth. Human Architecture Journal of the Sociology of Knowledge.

Heidegger, Martin. 2008. Being and Time. New York: Harper.

James, C.L.R. 1989. The Black Jacobins. New York: Vintage Books.

———. 2001. Mariners, Renegades & Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In. Hanover: Dartmouth College Press.

Kantorowicz, Ernst H. 1957. The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Malabou, Catherine. 2011. The Heidegger Changes: On the Fantastic in Philosophy. New York: SUNY.

Melville, Herman. 2002. Benito Cereno: Melville’s Short Novels. New York: Norton.

———. 1999. Moby-Dick. New York, NY: Norton Critical Edition.

Rogin, Michael Paul. 1982. Subversive Genealogy: The Politics and Art of Herman Melville. New York: Knopf.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1956. Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay. Secaucus: Citadel Press.

———. 1960. The Transcendence of the Ego: An Existential Theory of the Ego. New York: Hill and Wang.

Sekyi-Out, Ato. 1996. Fanon’s Dialectic of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Shakespeare, William. 2005. The Tragedy of Othello the Moor of Venice. New York: Oxford.

Title: Othello the Negro
Author: Michael E. Sawyer
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: An Africana Philosophy of Temporality
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98574-9

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-98575-6

Copyright Year: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98575-6_4

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