A Fury in the Words : Love and Embarrassment in Shakespeare's Venice / Harry Berger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berger, Harry, Jr., 1924-2021, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Shakespeare’s two Venetian plays are dominated by the discourse of embarrassment. The Merchant of Venice is a comedy of embarrassment, and Othello is a tragedy of embarrassment. This nomenclature is admittedly anachronistic, because the term “embarrassment” didn’t enter the language until the late seventeenth century. To embarrass is to make someone feel awkward or uncomfortable, humiliated or ashamed. Such feelings may respond to specific acts of criticism, blame, or accusation. “To embarrass” is literally to “embar”: to put up a barrier or deny access. The bar of embarrassment may be raised by unpleasant experiences. It may also be raised when people are denied access to things, persons, and states of being they desire or to which they feel entitled. The Venetian plays represent embarrassment not merely as a condition but as a weapon and as the wound the weapon inflicts. Characters in The Merchant of Venice and Othello devote their energies to embarrassing one another. But even when the weapon is sheathed, it makes its presence felt, as when Desdemona means to praise Othello and express her love for him: “I saw Othello’s visage in his mind” (1.3.253). This suggests, among other things, that she didn’t see it in his face.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Language as Gesture

Part One. Mercifixion in The Merchant of Venice: The Riches of Embarrassment

Introduction

1. Negotiating the Bond

2. Antonio’s Blues

3. Curiositas: The Two Sallies

4. Negative Usury and the Arts of Embarrassment

5. Negative Usury: Portia’s Ring Trick

6. Portia the Embarrasser

7. The Archery of Embarrassment

8. The First Jason

9. A Note on Verse and Prose in Act I

10. Another Jason

11. Portia Cheating

12. Portia’s Hair

13. The Siege of Belmont 13. The Siege of Belmont

14. Covinous Casketeers

15. Moonlit Maundering

16. Coigns of Vantage

17. Standing for Judgment

18. Standing for Sacrifice

19. “Here is the money”: Bassanio in the Bond Market

20. Twilight in Belmont: Portia’s Ring Cycle

21. Death in Venice

Part Two. Three’s Company: Contaminated Intimacy in Othello

22. Prehistory in Othello

23. Othello’s Embarrassment in 1.2 and 1.3

24. Desdemona on Cyprus: Act 2 Scene 1

25. The Proclamation Scenes: Act 2 Scenes 2 and 3

26. Dark Triangles in 3.3

27. Desdemona’s Greedy Ear

28. Impertinent Trifling: Desdemona’s Handkerchief

29. On the Emilian Trail

30. Iago’s Soliloquies

31. Othello’s Infidelity

32. The Fury in Their Words

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Mrz 2022)

ISBN:

0-8232-9076-X

OCLC:

1350688653