The Improbability of OthelloThe Improbability of Othello
ShakespeareOCOs dramatis personae exist in a world of supposition, struggling to connect knowledge that cannot be had, judgments that must be made, and actions that need to be taken.a For them, probabilityOCowhat they and others might be persuaded to believeOCogoverns human affairs, not certainty. Yet negotiating the space of probability is fraught with difficulty. Here, Joel B. Altman explores the problematics of probability and the psychology of persuasion in Renaissance rhetoric and ShakespeareOCOs theater.
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Focusing on the "Tragedy of Othello, " Altman investigates ShakespeareOCOs representation of the self as a specific realization of tensions pervading the rhetorical culture in which he was educated and practiced his craft. In AltmanOCOs account, Shakespeare also restrains and energizes his audiencesOCO probabilizing capacities, alternately playing the skeptical critic and dramaturgic trickster. A monumental work of scholarship by one of AmericaOCOs most respected scholars of Renaissance literature, "The Improbability of Othello "contributes fresh ideas to our understanding of ShakespeareOCOs conception of the self, his shaping of audience response, and the relationship of actors to his texts.
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- Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2010.
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