Othello's Race

The play seems to be fascinated and rather disturbed by this spectacle of interracial sexuality. Some critics have even wanted to wonder whether the couple ever consummate their relationship perhaps with the feeling that it would be preferable if they didn't. The significance of Othello's race must be that it engages with categories we still find it difficult to talk about. Frederick Jamison made a useful contribution to genre theory by dividing ideas of genre into two.