Shakespeare’s Othello and Colour-Blindness among Saudi Readers

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses the perception of race among Middle Eastern readers, especially Saudi students, who are studying English literature, with focus on Shakespeare’s Othello, to demonstrate the complexity of perceiving race among Saudi readers by linking it to the concept of ‘colour-blindness’. The article highlights the importance of acknowledging one’s own identity in relation to teaching and reading literature, since interpreting the text is based on the position the reader holds in relation to the narrative in front of him/her, and the apprehension of the cultural context of the text. Shakespeare’s Othello is a work that poses an interesting challenge to Saudi students since they do not realise the linguistic cues used by Shakespeare to denote the racial inequality the protagonist of the play is facing. Such phenomenon is explored in the article as an example of colour-blindness as their initial reading of the text did not count for Othello’s position in the play as a ‘person of colour’. The concept of decolonization is explored through how, after focusing on the element of race, Saudi students became acutely aware of their position as a reader of an English literary text that is part of a different culture than theirs.