- Quote
- Explanation of quote (“understanding lived experience”)
- Implication (“understanding Duets/Othello”)
Sharpe Wake; Sears Duet
Wake, p 16: ANALYZE ON TOP, CONNECT HERE
To be in the wake is to live in those no’s, to live in the no-space that the law is not bound to respect … To be in the wake is to recognize … the ongoing locations of Black being: the wake, the ship, the hold, and the weather.
Analysis
- “no-space”—ironic term exemplifying sense of claustrophobia: the contrast between “space” (the possible/freedom), with “no.”
- hidden meaning about the fact that, though freedom seemingly exists, it is not genuinely there because it is freedom in the “no”; in fact, these acts that “grant freedom” may simply grant oppression in a different form
- in the same vein, the imagery of “the hold” illustrates this same sense of claustrophobic constraint: one is “held” by this perceived sense of freedom
Broader Analysis Modern day opportunities available to African Americans may represent elements of the “no-space”: the areas by which the seeming granting of freedom becomes a hindering detriment that relegates someone to “the hold.”
[set this up]: how exactly Sharpe and Sears are brought together.
The creation of the arbitrarily racial label of ‘Black’ for people of African descent allows the arbitrary persecution due to the label’s unclear boundaries; furthermore, this persecution continues to modern day: ‘holding’ a person into seemingly self-inflicted cycles of abuse where the only true way out is to embrace and assimilate into white society.
define no-space here
[define wake in the end]: to be awake is to be aware of this cycle, and be
- othello and mona are going through only one trauma each
- billy is going through two
Duet: musical composition for two performers with equal importance to the piece.
- Billy as mother (incestruous) of Othello
- Pieta: motherly holding Jesus (p91)
- Egytion to my mother give (p93);
- Billy doing the murdering (p100)
Adding Black voices to Othello dismantles Othello
- Billie, Amah, and Magi <=> Desdemona, Emilia, Bianca
Vogel => Desdemona dies; in this one Billy kills instead of dies
CANADA: figure of a black man not leaving her. Lovers not together, paternal love highlighted.
“Wake: unless you deal become awake of the oprressions agaisnt you and relying on each other, you will fall into the white-centric society and join the oppressiors as the only way to get out of the self-sustaining cycle holding you down.”
slave trade engine: dragging forward ship
RECLAIMING
Duet, p 56: Black is a term with power to racialist: it has clear influence and no clear category
It’s because I’m Black. When a clear won’t put the change into my held-out hand, I think it’s because I’m Black. … Who called us Black anyway? It’s not a country, it’s not a racial category, its not even the color of my skin.
Analysis
- Sears highlights the practical constraints being “Black” caused Billie, yet at the same time cleanly rejects all practical associations of Blackness with actual qualities
- Practical hindrance of arbitrary label
- “who called us”—us-them dynamic; highlighting the amorphousness of the other group, yet did not provide a racialized labels
Broader Analysis
- The contrast between the explicit label “Black”, and Billie’s more general, amorphous term of “who” highlights the power of racialization
- While Black is not a clear descriptor category, Bilie shows that it can actually have much detrimental impact; and yet Bilie herself when referring to her oppressors simply ask “who” is it—obverting the same problem for her opressors
Wake, p 10
Vigilance, too, because any- and everywhere we are, medical and other professionals treat Black patients differently. … Because they are believed to be less sensitive to pain, black people are forced to endure more pain.
Analysis
- Points out uneven treatment of African Americans simply because of the arbitrary label of “Black”
- “sensitive”: respond to “changes, signals, or influences”
- less “responsive”/can’t be influenced
- highlights sense of diminishment of the Black intellect, a sense of lethargic primitivism
Broader Analysis
The label of “Black” has helped create an image of primitivism, which, due to its indeterminism (i.e. there is no specific descriptor for “Black” or “Blackness”), makes it very easy to abuse to diminish a group of people.
Duet, 66: attempts to free of the forced cycle results in separation from Blackness, as it seems Othello has done
A black man afflicted with Negrophobia. He’s the one that wants to white-wash his life … Brooker T. Uppermiddleclass III … found in predominantly White neighborhoods. He refers to other Blacks as “them”
Analysis
- Brooker T. Washington: educator and orator; born into slavery and was able to eventually lead the Tuskegee institute
- III => represents the multi-generation descendant; LAST NAME ERASURE: no longer carrying the herratage
- Morphing from Washinton’s idea of the “black elite” into white assimilation
Broader Analysis
- Highlights the establishment of us/them dynamic, as a photo of Othello
- Functional similarity of Othello fighting “the Turks”, reducing again his enemy to another group and racializing them as well
- Othello functions as essentially a part of the venetian army, in a “predominantly white neighborhood”
Duet, 31: Billie is forced to be stuck in a vicious cycle, a cycle which is propegated according to Wake only because of her blackness
All her money goes up in smokes and writings that tell her she really ain’t out of her mind … [otherwise] all the rot inside her would begin to boil, threaten to shoot out.
Analysis
- Double entere: “money goes up in smokes” —- money vanishes + money is used to buy smokes
- “to tell”: personifiying money as something that influences Billie
Bilie is trapped in a vicious cycle: Linguistically trapped — Rot =>(boil)=> Smoke =>(prevents)=> Rot.
Broader Analysis
This is an exemplification for the “bound in no-space” which Sharpe highlights. Unlike the Othello in Shakesphere that pretty much brings his own downfall from Iago’s manipulation, Billie in the play acts more due to the the inherent constraints of the system.
Wake, p 16: ANALYZE ON TOP, CONNECT HERE
To be in the wake is to live in those no’s, to live in the no-space that the law is not bound to respect … To be in the wake is to recognize … the ongoing locations of Black being: the wake, the ship, the hold, and the weather.
Analysis
- “no-space”—ironic term exemplifying sense of claustrophobia: the contrast between “space” (the possible/freedom), with “no.”
- hidden meaning about the fact that, though freedom seemingly exists, it is not genuinely there because it is freedom in the “no”; in fact, these acts that “grant freedom” may simply grant oppression in a different form
- in the same vein, the imagery of “the hold” illustrates this same sense of claustrophobic constraint: one is “held” by this perceived sense of freedom
Broader Analysis
Modern day opportunities available to African Americans may represent elements of the “no-space”: the areas by which the seeming granting of freedom becomes a hindering detriment that relegates someone to “the hold.”
Wake p 21
In the wake, the semiotics of the slave ship continue: from the forced movements of the enslaved to the forced movements of the migrant and the refugee, to the regulation of Black people in North American streets and neighborhoods.
Analysis
- “semiotics”: the interpretation of signs and symbols
- the repetition of the word forced takes agency out of the actor
- Sharpe’s argument: forcibleness is a symbol for the reminants of the slave ship
Broader Analysis
Billy’s being forced by the system to perform her daily, self destructive actions instead of the emotional Othello we see in Shakespeare, Billy is being forced by the system not out of her own volition to continue her act.