Between Gazes
Camelia Elias
Stereotypes
 “A fixed general image, characteristic,
etc. that a lot of people believe to
represent a particular type of person or
thing.”
(Collins Cobuild Dictionary)
Stereotyping
 When someone claims that members of
another culture all share the same, often
inferior or offensive characteristics.
Types of stereotypes
 racial e.g. Red Indians in cowboy films are seen
as bloodthirsty savages
 gender e.g. women are bad drivers
 age e.g. old people are said to be very forgetful
 religion e.g. Catholics families have a lot of
children
 profession e.g. all lawyers are greedy
Heaven and Hell
 Heaven is where the police are British, the
cooks are French, the mechanics are
German, the lovers are Italian and it is all
organised by the Swiss.
 Hell is where the police are German, the
cooks are English, the mechanics are
French, the lovers are Swiss, and it is all
organised by the Italians.
The typical Frenchman
Historical basis
The typical Englishman
Basis in fiction
Where do stereotypes come from?
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familial environment
the media
friends
education (school, university)
travel
laziness
fear
envy
a sense of superiority
lack of experience of people, etc.
stereotype threat
 unpleasant apprehension arising from the
awareness of a negative ability stereotype
in a situation where the stereotype is
relevant, and thus confirmable.
(“Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans".
Steele & Aronson, 1995)
Orientalism – a discourse of ‘Othering’
 The production of the East as the West’s ‘other’
 Bhabha – ‘othering as a form of pathological disorder at
state level’
 Intense desire and fear
 Colonised countries become invested with sexuality
 The objects of fetishism as colonial countries become invested
with sexuality exoticism
 The eroticized gaze turns colonial countries into
spectacle
 Mark Currie: ‘the condition of otherness is not a logical
relation as much as a power relation’
discursive frameworks for analysis
 HOMOGENEITY
Generalisations and categories
Subhuman elements
Pronouns –’he’, ‘they’
Pronouns and verb forms in the 3rd person
mark an Other outside the dialogue
 Help construct a sense of spectacle
esp. 19th c. anthropology and travel writing
Other
 the opposite of One
 a secondary identity  ‘altered’ or contaminated identity
 a natural complement to difference
three senses:
 quasi-oppositionality
 implicit inferiority or secondariness
 unknowability, or ineffability
 these characteristics are accounts of identity as a kind of
relation or exchange with the Other
mimicry
 imitation as camouflage
 repeats rather than represents (Bhabha)
 Portia:
 imitates men, dresses like a lawyer, talks like one
 Shylock
 mimicry is forced upon him
 Bassanio
 as a gay representative, he mimics the straight guy by
wooing and marrying a woman
civilization vs. ‘civilization’
Ghandhi’s visit to Britain:
 Reporter: “What do you think
of modern civilisation Mr
Gandhi?”
 Gandhi: “I think it would be a
good idea”
 in other renditions:
 ‘what do you think of
civilization in England?
 ‘I think that it would be
something worth trying!’
theatrical conventions in Shakespeare’s time
 suspension of reality
 no electricity
 women forbidden to
act on stage
 minimal contemporary
costume
 minimal scenery
all these control the dialogue
dialogue and types of speech
 soliloquy
 aside
 The playwright used poetic dialogue:
 to paint a picture of the scene
 to establish the time and the place of the action
 to familiarize the audience both with the characters’
identities and their physical appearances
 Soliloquies and asides were also used to compensate for
the absence of an elaborate stage
staging
 blood and gore
 use of supernatural
 the audience demands to be scared
stage costumes
 communicate the
message of the
character, show his/her
social status, profession
 a company's costumes
were among its most
important item.
 individual costumes often
cost more than the
outright purchase of a
play.
historical accuracy
 accurate information concerning the
clothes worn in the early productions is
very lacking.
 it is believed that even in a play set in
ancient Rome the actors wore
contemporary dress.
 there was very little attempt to present
historical accuracy.
Merchant of Venice - clips
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Prince of Morroco
monologue
Trial
cutting
setting: two worlds
• Venice
• Language of money,
commerce
• Male friendship
• Justice / letter of law
• Belmont
• Poetic language
• Love / marriage
bonds
• Mercy / spirit of law
background:
Old vs. New Testament
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Judaism
Justice / Retribution
Letter of Law
“A Daniel come to
judgment”
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Christianity
Mercy / Forgiveness
Spirit of Law
“Quality of Mercy is
not strained”
three plots
• Casket plot
• (Act I – III) Resolved with marriage of
Portia and Bassanio
• Pound of Flesh plot
• (Act I – IV) Resolved with Court scene
• Ring plot
• (Act III – V) Resolved with reconciliation
scene between Portia and Bassanio,
Nerissa and Gratiano
Potential conflict for Bassanio’s love
Bassanio
the Jew
the Jew
Potential conflict
Antonio
Portia
Bassanio’s bonds
• Father/Son-like and/or friendship relationship
with Antonio
• Father of Portia/Suitor bond through Casket
choice
• Husband/Wife bond with Portia
• Love bond/promise through acceptance of ring
• Gratitude bond with Ballerio (Portia in disguise
as Doctor of Law)
Who was the Merchant of Venice?
• Antonio
• Has many ships in various parts of the world
• Shylock
• Lends out money for profit
• Bassanio
• Gentleman, but the one who ends up with the
“Golden Fleece”: Portia, her father’s fortune
Shylock’s conversion to Christianity
 From Christians’ point of view
 Shylock cannot be “saved” without Christ
 They are doing him a favor
 From Jews’ point of view
 Shylock is condemned to be without society
 He cannot associate with other Jews
 The Christians won’t really accept him
 The law is imposing a penalty worse than losing
all the money
 the law enforcers  more merciless than Shylock
themes
 love vs. wealth
 choices – greed vs. willingness to give, risk, venturing
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mercy vs. revenge
harmony vs. disorder
friendship vs. homosexual love
appearance vs. reality
bonds, covenants vs loss
boredom vs spectacle
justice vs forgiveness
‘true’ nature of love