the trouble with gender in othello - Auburn University Electronic ...

THESIS ABSTRACT
THE TROUBLE WITH GENDER IN OTHELLO: A BUTLERIAN READING OF
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO,
THE MOOR OF VENICE
Jeri Lynn Peters
Master of Arts, August 4, 2007
(BS., Troy University Dothan, 2005)
47 Pages
Directed by Constance Relihan
By applying the theories of gender as performance developed by feminist
theorist Judith Butler in her 1990 work, Gender Trouble, to the canonical text of
William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, this thesis seeks
to prove that the primary causes of the action of the play are the flaws in
Desdemona and Othello’s gender performance, as well as Iago’s inability to
tolerate these flaws.
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