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Chapter 9. Adapting Othello for television in late Francoist Spain

It’s all about the ‘Moor’
  • Laura Campillo Arnaiz and Elena Bandín Fuertes
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<i>Othello</i> in European Culture
This chapter is in the book <i>Othello</i> in European Culture

Abstract

Estudio 1 was a TV theatre series created during Franco’s dictatorship in which Shakespeare’s plays were regularly produced to serve the propaganda interests of the regime. In this paper, we explore a Estudio 1 production of Othello (1972) analyzing the contradictory meanings and readings that the figure of the ‘Moor’ has in the Spanish collective imaginary. The portrayal of Othello by the late Francoist TV adaptation confirms and authorises Spanish fears and prejudices about a militaristic, exotic but ultimately jealous and brutal ‘Moor’, who must be different from any form of ‘Spanish’ identity. The Shakespearean tragedy therefore offers the perfect opportunity to legitimise the ‘Moor’ as constructed in the crucible of Spanish history and memory – a dangerous ‘Other’ whose ultimate death following Iago’s revenge is a political and cultural necessity at the end of the tragedy.

Abstract

Estudio 1 was a TV theatre series created during Franco’s dictatorship in which Shakespeare’s plays were regularly produced to serve the propaganda interests of the regime. In this paper, we explore a Estudio 1 production of Othello (1972) analyzing the contradictory meanings and readings that the figure of the ‘Moor’ has in the Spanish collective imaginary. The portrayal of Othello by the late Francoist TV adaptation confirms and authorises Spanish fears and prejudices about a militaristic, exotic but ultimately jealous and brutal ‘Moor’, who must be different from any form of ‘Spanish’ identity. The Shakespearean tragedy therefore offers the perfect opportunity to legitimise the ‘Moor’ as constructed in the crucible of Spanish history and memory – a dangerous ‘Other’ whose ultimate death following Iago’s revenge is a political and cultural necessity at the end of the tragedy.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction. “I would my [European] pilgrimage dilate” 1
  5. Part 1. Trans(national) subjects
  6. Chapter 1. Charles Mathews’s Othello, the Moor of Fleet Street (1833) and Maurice Dowling’s Othello Travestie (1834) 29
  7. Chapter 2. Othello in Spain (1802–1844) 49
  8. Chapter 3. Traditions of playing and spectating 63
  9. Chapter 4. Othello on the German stage 81
  10. Part 2. Othello and European constructions of alterity
  11. Chapter 5. Othello’s race and slavery 99
  12. Chapter 6. From black to white, from man to beast, from tragical to comical 113
  13. Chapter 7. Let it be hid? 133
  14. Chapter 8. “It is all about passion” 153
  15. Part 3. Adapting Othello
  16. Chapter 9. Adapting Othello for television in late Francoist Spain 173
  17. Chapter 10. Pulling the strings 191
  18. Chapter 11. The circumcised dog and the subtle whore 205
  19. Chapter 12. “It is not words that shakes me thus” 225
  20. Chapter 13. A selective timeline of Othello in European culture 247
  21. Index 261
https://doi.org/10.1075/sec.3.09cam

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Introduction. “I would my [European] pilgrimage dilate” 1
  5. Part 1. Trans(national) subjects
  6. Chapter 1. Charles Mathews’s Othello, the Moor of Fleet Street (1833) and Maurice Dowling’s Othello Travestie (1834) 29
  7. Chapter 2. Othello in Spain (1802–1844) 49
  8. Chapter 3. Traditions of playing and spectating 63
  9. Chapter 4. Othello on the German stage 81
  10. Part 2. Othello and European constructions of alterity
  11. Chapter 5. Othello’s race and slavery 99
  12. Chapter 6. From black to white, from man to beast, from tragical to comical 113
  13. Chapter 7. Let it be hid? 133
  14. Chapter 8. “It is all about passion” 153
  15. Part 3. Adapting Othello
  16. Chapter 9. Adapting Othello for television in late Francoist Spain 173
  17. Chapter 10. Pulling the strings 191
  18. Chapter 11. The circumcised dog and the subtle whore 205
  19. Chapter 12. “It is not words that shakes me thus” 225
  20. Chapter 13. A selective timeline of Othello in European culture 247
  21. Index 261
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