MO3351 Doing and Practicing Transnational and Global History

Race. Shakespeare’s Othello offers an insight into its nature in early modern Europe. My project will investigate how adaptations of Othello exhibit race, re-claiming Shakespeare in the context of racial oppression. My focus is on the post-colonial Indian Bollywood adaptation, Omkara,[1] and Janet Suzman’s 1987 production of Othello in apartheid South Africa.[2] But why did directors and writers choose Othello to adapt? How did they use the play to ‘write back’ to their oppressors? When Shakespeare played such a dominant role in disseminating English superiority in oppressive regimes, how were their adaptations received? These are the questions I will answer. 

To distance my work from the ‘west vs. the rest’ framework, my project will view Shakespeare not, as often is the obvious choice when concerning ‘global Shakespeares’, as a Bard influencing the world as his work is disseminated. Instead, the focus will be on how Shakespeare has been adapted and interpreted, influencing local audiences independently of his influence as the ‘universal bard’. Othello is a vehicle for ideas. Said’s recognition of colonial domination being just as much a cultural process as a political process allows me to understand Shakespeare’s role in asserting power.[3] From this Shakespearean assertion of English superiority in India and South Africa, I argue that adaptations allowed the colonised people to ‘write back’ to their oppressors. I present Shakespeare as a ‘rhizomatic’ figure, who’s legacy is one of a series of de-centred eruptions across the globe. These performances create their own “cultural coordinates”, from which we can map similarities and differences.[4]

Taking Othello as an idea and commodity to be moulded, I will adopt a global intellectual historical approach. Subrahmanyam has emphasised the importance of avoiding Eurocentrism in global intellectual history, and this fear is evident in my project given Shakespeare’s ‘hegemonic’ status. He points out that historians must fight to balance the familiar elements of the ‘Western pantheon’, and the unfamiliar, more obscure works which western historians have often denied interest in due to their very local context.[5] By focusing on these local adaptations, my work hopes to shift the vision of Othello from a play about race in the context of oppression, to a medium used to combat oppressors.

By choosing certain adaptations of Othello, the problem of anachronism when drawing comparisons is evident. However, both adaptations come from the environment of a prolonged period of racial oppression. The extent to which Othello is adapted differs, however, in each. In Omkara Shakespeare’s dramatic plots are used and altered to entice viewers. Contrastingly, in Janet Suzman’s Othello, while the text goes almost entirely unaltered, the performance’s motivations are political. While to Shakespeare’s audience Othello was about a racial ‘other’, a ‘moor’, in Europe, separated from others like him, when staged during the Apartheid regime, the play presented an African marginalised in Africa.

Othello’s race has been disputed, with most asserting that he was black, given the use of ‘blackness’ and its analogies with ‘evil’ in the text.[6] However, the meaning of ‘Race’ today differs from when Shakespeare wrote, when it referred to a mix of clan, lineage, and class. Moving away from binary colonial models of cultural identity, Loomba and Orkin call for a more interconnected study of colonial and post-colonial Shakespeares, factoring in the fact that the racial ideologies within a historical context shape the way Shakespeare’s text is read, portrayed, and interpreted.[7]

Though I focus on the post-oppression adaptation, I will provide an insight into how Othello’s meaning changes depending on context. I agree with Keinänen’s conclusion that our global Shakespeares are so widely dispersed that many of them, “make cultural references which no amount of clever subtitling will ever open up to a foreign audience, and are unlikely to be distributed widely outside of the initial target culture”.[8] However, by contributing to the historical analysis of these adaptations, placing them in more local contexts, I hope to show that Shakespeare’s survival owes as much to this continual reinvention as it does to the ‘universal bard’.

[1] Vishal Bhardwaj, Director. Omkara. Eros Entertainment, 2006. 

 [2] Janet Suzman, Director. Othello, 1987.

 [3] Edward Said, Orientalism, (New York, 1979), p. 11.

[4] Alexander Huang, ‘Global Shakespeare as Methodology’, Shakespeare, 2013, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 273-290, p. 282.  

 [5] Sanjay Subrahmanyan, ‘Beyond the Usual Suspects: On Intellectual Networks in the Early Modern World.’ Global Intellectual History, 2017,vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 30-48.

 [6]William Shakespeare, Othello, (London, 2015). 

 [7] Ania Loomba and Martin Orkin (eds.), Post-Colonial Shakespeares, (New York, 2008), p. 5.

 [8] Nely Keinänen, What’s global about global Shakespeare? The case of Perttu Leppä’s 8 päivää ensi-iltaan (8 Days to the Premiere), Shakespeare, 2013, vol. 9 no. 3, pp. 330-338, p. 331.

This project will question to what extent was there a ‘Welsh subaltern’ in late 18^th century Wales? This is addressed through the orientalist Sir William Jones’s life, relevant spheres of influence and engagement with India and Wales. Jones provides a link between the Indian and potential Welsh subalterns. Comparing the similarities and differences between the two subaltern cultures helps to determine to what extent there was a Welsh subaltern. The project will further investigate the similarities and differences in the cultural revival movements of Welsh Celtic culture and the ‘Indian Renaissance’. Jones again is the connection having links to both movements. This will be useful in answering comparative questions including: who was behind these revivals? What was the purpose of them? And how were these subaltern cultural revivals perceived by the dominant culture of the metropole? 

The working hypothesis of this project is that there was a ‘Welsh Subaltern’. Whilst sharing similar cultural characteristics with the Indian subaltern there are also substantial differences in the revival of the subaltern cultures and the purposes of their revival. For instance, it was in the interests of imperialism that the Indian revival took place to justify British colonial rule over the indigenous population through their own laws. Whereas, in the case of Wales, revivalism was a ‘bottom-up’ phenomenon which was based on the idea that Welsh culture and language was marginalised as English (a minority language in Wales) was used in legal and governmental arenas and generally looked down upon by anglicised upper-classes. However, it must be acknowledged that these were not necessarily ‘English people’ but rather ‘anglicised Welsh people. Therefore, the Welsh subaltern, unlike the Indian subaltern, was not under colonial rule but was a marginalised group within Wales. 

This project is based on the field of subaltern studies. Guha defined the subaltern as “a name for the general attribute of subordination in South Asian society whether this is expressed in terms of class, caste, age, gender and office or in any other way”.^[1] According to Chakrabarty, Subaltern Studies aims to “produce historical analysis in which the subaltern groups were viewed as the subjects of history” instead of being the objects of it.^[2] Therefore, this project will apply this concept to the marginalised peasant community of Wales. Highlighting a community which is often looked over. Postcolonialism is essential to this project as Jones worked for the British Empire. Said’s Orientalism is useful in deconstructing the power hierarchies present in terms of the European attitudes to India. Reapplying this to the Welsh context perhaps highlights the subtle power discourses present which are not as obvious compared to their presence in colonial India. 

As mentioned above, this project takes a comparative approach. As Bloch notes, it is foolish to look for connections likely don’t exist.^[3] This is most likely the case between the populations of the Welsh and Indian Subalterns with Jones serving as the only major connection. However, comparing the Indian subaltern with the Welsh peasant culture will help us to determine to what extent there was a Welsh subaltern. As Haupt and Kocka note “historical peculiarities only become clearly visible when one refers to comparable examples.^[4] Furthermore, analysing the similarities and differences of these cultures could facilitate the discovery of suspiring connections and could increase the transnationality of the project. 

This project will rely on lots of secondary literature, especially from Franklin and Cannon who have published extensively on Jones and his life’s work. They heavily reference his letters and his works. Therefore, providing a springboard to Jones’s work in Wales and India. The Asiatic Society will also be a fruitful source as it kickstarted enthusiasm for Indian studies in both Britain and India.^[5] This will lead to sources about and from the Indian cultural revival, and especially in the earlier days of the society, give a particularly European view of Indian culture. This will exhibit the European and British reception to the Indian revival. Similarly, the Cymmodorion Society and other Celtic revivalist groups which Jones was involved in can similarly provide contemporary perspectives on Welsh culture. 

Bibliography

Bloch, Marc, Land and Work in Medieval Europe (New York, 1966). 

Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Subaltern Studies and Postcolonial Historiography”, Nepantla: Views from South, 1:1, (2000), pp. 9-32.

Guha, Ranajit, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India (Durham, 1999).

Kocka, Jürgen and Haupt, Heinz-Gerhard, “Comparison and Beyond: Traditions, Scope, and Perspectives of Comparative History”, in Heinz-Gerhard Haupt an Jürgen Kocka (eds), Comparative and Transnational History: Central European Approaches and New Perspectives (New York, 2009).

Mukerjee, S., N., “Sir William Jones and the British Attitudes Towards India”, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1/2 (April 1964), pp. 37-47. 

^[1] Ranajit Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India (Durham, 1999), p.35.

^[2] Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Subaltern Studies and Postcolonial Historiography”, Nepantla: Views from South, 1:1, (2000), p.15.

^[3] Marc Bloch, Land and Work in Medieval Europe (New York, 1966), p.68. 

^[4] Jürgen Kocka and Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, “Comparison and Beyond: Traditions, Scope, and Perspectives of Comparative History”, in Heinz-Gerhard Haupt an Jürgen Kocka (eds), Comparative and Transnational History: Central European Approaches and New Perspectives (New York, 2009), p.4.

^[5] S. N. Mukerjee, “Sir William Jones and the British Attitudes Towards India”, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1/2 (April 1964), p.47.

Drudkh is a band in Ukraine who, despite never having performed live, given any interviews, or released any biographical information about themselves, have hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify, even though the streaming service only expanded its operations to Ukraine in July 2020.[1] However, when one scratches the surface, it becomes clear that Drudkh is a band worthy of analysis. While only a few images of the band exist online, if one searches for the members’ original formation in the early 1990s as Hate Forest, one will find a video of the band performing at the 2002 Kolovorot, a Ukrainian pagan music festival, in front of a giant Kolovrat; a Slavonic symbol often used in lieu of a swastika.[2] As well as this, Drudkh seeks inspiration for its music from the nation’s Romanticist poets who often deal with Anti-Russian and Anti-Polish themes, release merchandise patriotically displaying the Ukrainian flag, and have, according to some fan rumours, released material that espouses white supremacy. What this analysis of Drudkh is aiming to achieve is not to confirm whether or not a single band is racist, but rather to analyse how this acceptance of the use of such symbols and themes in music reflect a wider political subculture: that of Neo-Nazism within Black Metal.

                        In order to achieve this goal, this project shall take the form of an essay whose scope begins with the introduction of pagan, Nietzschean, and Nazi themes into the Black Metal genre in Norway in the late 1980s, before analysing how this extreme and violent culture spread through its music across Europe in the 1990s. While a brief foray into anthropological theories regarding subcultures will assist in analysing why music can have political consequences, the overall theme of this first part of the essay will be to integrate the history of European Black Metal into a wider tradition which exists within political commentaries on the 1990s — those which describe it as a decade of worldwide anti-globalist backlash.[3] However, as indicated in the opening paragraph, the ultimate goal of this essay will be to draw connections and linkages between the contemporary Black Metal scene in Kharkiv to far-right militias in Ukraine and political movements in Russia, Greece, France, and beyond Europe.

                        Essentially, by taking such a broad scope in both time and space, perhaps a new metanarrative could be drawn to link modern far-right politics to transnational forces in the 1990s. However, despite such a scope, the issue remains that this is a niche question revolving around an often dismissed subculture which is barely 30 years old. Primary sources are plentiful in the form of fanzines, online forums, and photographs, but these lack verifiability. Secondary sources are also problematic since they generally lack academic rigour and fall into the trap of taking myths as truths.[4] However, there is so much material that it will be possible to make connections, and there is truth that can be grounded because we can confirm that these people exist, that the events surrounding them occurred, and that their art is published.

                        In this case, to draw a clearer and wider picture of this history, it is better to focus on the lateral connections between events, rather than the specific details of each event, as these details become mythologised by an overly imaginative fanbase, and also by participants of the events seeking to be perceived as being as extreme as possible. Therefore, a band which releases almost no biographical information is a valid starting point to this history of contemporary European Neo-Nazism, since the significance of the band does not lie within the actions and ideas of its members, but in the community and scene which surround and define it, and this analysis will, because of this, not be distracted by unverifiable details about the band itself.

                        To assist in making this project a valid analysis of these currently unconnected historical facts, the essay shall employ historiographical theories which are yet to be applied to the Black Metal scene, the sources for which shall be identified in an historiographical subsidiary essay titled “how is music viewed as a transnational vehicle for ideas in traditional historiography?” This will allow for a more in-depth analysis of the question “how do the Neo-Nazi currents which persist in Black Metal today influence far-right politics transnationally?”

[1] Drudkh, “Artists”, Spotify, <https://open.spotify.com/artist/4q5mj9YpaYesKvHzN8XYve> [accessed: 10/03/21].

[2] ΚΩΣΤΑΣ ΜΠΟΛΝΤΑΣ, “Hate Forest Live at Kolovorot 2002”, YouTube, 27/07/2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaxDhFeD8FM> [accessed: 10/03/21].

[3] Subculture Theory is applied to music scenes in the latest volume of the Studies in Symbolic Interaction (1978-2016) series; an obvious example of this theme in political commentary is Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations (1996).

[4] Dayal Patterson’s Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult (2013) offers perhaps the best collection of primary source material and secondary source analysis, but it lacks academic rigour.

“The introductory Wikipedia search” – freedom and access to information, how free is it? The historical issues raised and revisited through the lens of Wikipedia, and potential as a human resource. 

Word count 692

Information and access to it are not new concepts in history, and there is wealth of literature on the importance of it to life and development. From early hunter-gatherers to the Industrial Revolution information has played a key role in success and human life. In contemporary contexts or mass media and the internet, this is more important than ever. In both what information is presented to who and by who, but what information is sought out and the impact this has on development and social dynamics. Using Wikipedia as a departure point, and examining its data and usage, it’s possible to explore issues of censorship, inequality and information formation. Through this, it can be seen that controlling information and credibility through linguistics particularly is vital to social dynamics and education and calls into question the validity of the statement ‘freedom to information’. 

As an independent resource, Wikipedia strives to compile a catalogue of articles covering a near total range of topics. It does not claim to be expert in fields and subjects but often provides an adept starting off point in research tasks, providing rudimentary understandings, especially if you did not know where to look or have the right membership. By its nature it depends on community collaboration and the dedication of individuals, which is what opens it to such an interesting debate. Through the lens of Wikipedia and its reputation the following questions can be explored:

• How important really is freedom to information? 
• Where is the inequality in access to information and what produces the barriers? 
• What does information access tell us about transnational history and networks, given the frequent interactions with national bodies and governments? 
• How free is access to information through mass media, acknowledging the human cost and resources involved in getting to it – can it really be free? 

Issues of inequality and censorship have persisted throughout history, and in some ways Wikipedia is the latest platform for the debate to play out or be visible through. However, it gives a unique angle into ideas of ‘cultural censorship’ and how social dynamics influence what is considered information and how important/useful it is, as a humanitarian resource. 

Wikipedia is not free from bias, but when there is a dearth of information it can fill the gaps on issues like hygiene and sexual health, particularly in disadvantaged areas (be that in a global context or a local one). 

Despite its potential as an educational tool, it has a tendency to be discredited as unreliable or vulnerable to exploitation. Many in positions of information authority (meaning teachers, academics, librarians) argue against the validity of Wikipedia as a resource due to its collaborative and somewhat anonymous nature. If it was so unreliable however, it would be safe to assume that it would not be subject to as much censorship around the globe as it is. From this example through Wikipedia, it raises questions of information construction and social institutions role in producing ‘knowledge’, and the impacts this has. This topic, what is a fact and how is it constructed, is worthy of an essay on its own. The historical basis of the arguments surrounding information credibility and mass media, to be explored through Wikipedia in the project. 

To do this the approach taken will be that of a case study and branches through history, following the historical background of collaborative knowledge and censorship, and the benefit this can have as a humanitarian resource. Primary sources stating intent and effect from both Wikipedia and other interacting bodies can facilitate exploring the questions raised through linguistics, as well as historical debates on social construction of information and legitimacy, which when applied to Wikipedia, can show the inequalities and class dynamics at play in information access. Several biographical examples lend itself to this study, as the individual motivations and phrases are illustrative of the real impacts of Wikipedia as a resource in relation to the questions. This is a worthy topic to study given the casual pervasiveness of Wikipedia and its information, considering its near constant use globally and the conclusions that can be drawn from how it is regarded, and how it is used. 

In his article, “Spatializing Transnational History: European Spaces and Territories”, Ángel Alcalde outlines the two main epistemological approaches to the problem of space in transnational history: a constructivist approach detached from geographical determinism, and one which combines different scales of analysis without challenging established definitions of space. This later approach is one which I believe will be useful in conceptualizing  transnational reproduction  in all the diseparate social and political spaces that it operates within and through. Alcalde highlights a distinction between borders and frontiers, the former being formal demarcations of ownership and the latter being  zones where social systems come into contact. For my purposes, this can be applied to human beings in that intending parents who travel to a foreign country to receive their baby born from surrogacy,  cross a physical border but perhaps more importantly, they encounter a frontier where the socio-political tendencies of their home country interact with those of the country where their surrogate resides. This becomes clear when one looks at the incompatible legal frameworks in different countries which affect the degree of difficulty intending parents have in obtaining a passport for their child born of surrogacy, as well as the  socio-cultural considerations which shape how people in different places view transnational reproduction. The space in which transnational reproduction operates is inherently constructed both transnationally and historically, by rules and regulations set by different nations, on one hand, and by social and cultural  specificities on the other. 

Alcalde draws on Muller and Torp’s (2009)  conception of transnational spaces to explain how space is a functional category constructed through economic, social, cultural or political interactions which acquires meaning  in relation to a set of perceptions and interests in a given context. In my research, the transnational space which I am looking at are all those locations throughout the globe which are involved in the process of transnational reproduction, as well as the localized spaces which  take on a global character due  to the intersection of different people, beliefs, legal precedents, and economic interests. Alcalde also mentions an article by Struck, Ferris, and Revel (2011) in which the authors advocate a focus on micro-scales in transnational research  because  these processes are often best “felt” at the local  or individual level. I believe this point is particularly important for my research due to the important ethical considerations which arise when talking about transnational reproduction. In my research so far I have gained important insights by reading articles and books and by watching  documentaries on individuals’ experience with transnational reproduction. It it my hope that the final product of my research will not only offer some interesting insights into the phenomenon of transnational reproduction, but also do justice to the people directly affected by it , especially those who are most vulnerable and have the least agency in this process: the surrogate mothers and the babies they produce. This blog post should serve as a starting point for my short essay, in which I would like to tease out some of the methodological considerations which will determine how I write my own transnational history of transnational reproduction. Although the topic necessitates a transnational lens, the methodology is less clear, and I believe that devoting this short essay to this topic will allow me to formulate a coherent plan of action for tackling the final project/essay.

The reading recommended this week was not only significant in understanding the methodological approaches used to study space in transnational history, it also helped me make sense of some aspects of my research. Alcalde made some very interesting points about how space is not just a container within which historical events take place. These historical events are also responsible for creating these spaces. The example of migrant Italian communities that settled in Toronto and Buenos Aires demonstrated how geographically independent territories could become crucial points of interaction between societies and cultures. They reflect the permeability of borders. 

The idea of a nation-state has become subject to historiographical debate by scholars. As Alcalde exclaims “even territories were constructed transnationally”. This line in itself was powerful enough for me to think of examples of nation-states that were created as a result of transnational historical processes. I could very well be wrong, but this sentence reminded me of the creation of Pakistan. It was not merely the demand of the Muslim League; it was a result of various interactions. The policymakers of India were heavily influenced by the European models of inter-state peacemaking. As Pallavi Raghavan exclaimed “The aftermath of the break-up of large multinational empires along ethnic majoritarian lines posed administrative questions that were, in many ways, also similar to the partition of the sub-continent on religious lines[1]” 

The concept of ‘transnational sphere’ discussed in the reading was linked to some of the ideas I am planning to explore in my project. International organisations, congresses, the publication of journals were all a part of this sphere. These spaces were the centre of intellectual thought. The Indian suffragettes were a part of a progressive liberal movement that helped shape the lives of women across different continents and not just the west. The anti-colonial alliances formed during this time are also an example of this. The flow of ideas transcended boundaries and created a unique space.   

  [1] Pallavi Raghavan (2020) Partition: An International History, The International History Review, 42:5, 1029-1047

After a very helpful and beneficial unconference at the weekend, my project proposal is starting to take shape. 

It now seems appropriate to start preparing for the short essay. 

Initially, I was planning on doing a historiographical essay outlining the different approaches which I am planning of incorporating into my project. However, I now think it’s more appropriate to write a methodological essay on comparative history in order to avoid self-plagiarising when it comes to my actual project. 

Furthermore, having written historiographical essays last year in HI2001 I think it would also be beneficial to pay some attention to the methodology behind writing transnational and global history. Hence, writing about methodology is a chance to expand my skills and understanding of practicing history. 

After this weekend, I’ve decided that my project will be a comparative study and feel that it would be beneficial to do the short essay on comparative history. 

After (very) briefly looking over the Bloch and Haupt and Kocka chapters, it has become apparent that I believe that I’ve made the right choice to have chosen a comparative approach. As I’m planning on comparing two different subaltern groups and their cultures, the comparative method certainly seems the most appropriate to use. As Haupt and Kocka write ‘Historical peculiarities only become clearly visible when one refers to comparable examples, which are sufficiently similar in some respects, but differ in others’ (p.4). This is a good place to start when trying to establish to what extent there was a ‘Welsh subaltern’, as by comparing it to the well-known example of the Indian subaltern, the answer will (hopefully) become clearer. 

I thought it would be a good idea to give a bit of background to the main figure of my project as well as present a few of the ways in which Sir William Jones was a truly transnational and global actor and then briefly lay out how he links to my project. 

Sir William Jones is was a multifaceted character, as he was one of the most well-known orientalists, a talented translator, poet and philologist just to name a few areas of his life. He went to Oxford University and practiced law on the Carmarthen and Oxford circuits. Later in his career he became a judge on the Supreme Court of in Bengal. However, he is most well-known for his ‘discovery’ of what is now known as the ‘proto-European language’ which is thought to be one of the largest language families encompassing most European and southern Asian languages. He is also the founder of the Asiatic Society (founded in 1784), which is still running to this day.

Jones was a very connected individual with links on opposite sides of the world in America and in South Asia. For example, he had a fond friendship with Benjamin Franklin as a big supporter of the American Revolution, as well as being connected to the British radicals. It’s even been argued that Franklin improved upon Jones’s proposal for a tripartite government which since has become central to US politics. He was even invited to the court of Louis XVI in France, impressing the King with his linguistic skills. Furthermore, his links to the East were extensive as an orientalist he translated Persian and Sanskrit poetry. He fell in love with India after his move there as a Judge in Bengal and was fascinated by the Sanskrit language. He is also fondly remembered in Indian culture as being the harbinger of India’s cultural renaissance. 

His links to Wales are particularly interesting as his father, the Mathematician William Jones (colleague of Newton and one of the first people to introduce the pi symbol) was from Anglesey in North Wales and he was also a descendent of Hwfa ap Cynddlew, Lord of Llyslifon, and the Welsh princes of Gwynedd. It was on the West Wales circuit he championed the rights of a Welsh peasants oppressed by the anglicised landowners who were demanding unreasonable rents and taxes, as well as representing them in front of English-speaking courts and Judges when the vast majority of peasants at the time only spoke Welsh. This angered Jones that the courts would only translate what had been said in court for the benefit of the English-speaking court and judges rather than the peasants as he felt that it was unfair that his clients could not understand court procedures in an unfamiliar language. Thus, he switched between welsh and English in the court room. It was in Wales that he formed many of his values and sided with those who were marginalized and downtrodden by powerful interests often defending small time tenants and workmen gratis. Being of English and Welsh descent he empathised with his subaltern and marginalised countrymen from the position of growing up in the dominant metropolitan culture. His dialogue The Principles of Government (Barn ar Egwyddorion y Llywodraeth) was translated into Welsh and widely distributed and performed in towns and fairs so even illiterate people could understand. This highlighted how Jones could link the metropole and the margins (as the text became a key text in the movement for parliamentary reform) and centred his concerns on the colonised and the oppressed, which carried over to his work in India. I am interested in is this idea of the ‘Welsh Subaltern’ or ‘Subaltern Wales’ and how this influenced Jones in his work in India. It will be interesting to see if there is any comparisons and connections between the Welsh and Indian subalterns. Also, like Indian culture, Wales has a rich cultural past of poetry and mythical stories and Jones also had links with the Celtic revival movement, so it would be interesting to see if there were any parallels between the revival of Indian and Celtic cultures which Jones was involved in and potential the political implications of this on future Welsh nationalist movements. Finally, I’m curious to see how Empire fits into this equation when looking at the subaltern at home and abroad, as Jones was a Judge for the East India Company and a lot of his work was used to produce english versions of Indian laws which permitted British rule Indians by their own laws.

The last couple of weeks have been extremely overwhelming for me, but this week I do feel that my project proposal is finally coming together.  I have been researching my topic for the last few weeks and have quite a lot of information already. However, sometimes I do feel you can have a little too much info at the start, which can confuse and overwhelm you.  This in turn, can make you feel as I did, not sure about where to turn and if you are on the right track.  After last weeks one to one and the surgery session I do feel much more confident and that I am on the right track for my project and also for my short essay.  Although, I am still a little nervous about doing my informal presentation on Tuesday, I do feel like I have a plan to follow and I also have a first draft of my proposal yay!  I can then hopefully refine this next week after feedback from both tutors, peers and the unconference next Saturday. 

My project will be a comparative essay concentrating on Bengal and Dundee, specifically focusing on the labour force in the mills and three main areas (which I will go into in greater detail on Tuesday).   

Looking Forward to Next Year…………

This week I also received an email on information and deadline for my application for my honours dissertation/project.  I honestly thought this would have been a little later on.  However, I would like to find a way to continue my research in this area for my dissertation/project as it is something that I am very interested in.  One idea I have is to expand into the textile trade with Dundee in a specific timeline, concentrating on global connections with the flow of raw materials and textiles in other parts of the world and Dundee, with specific attention to imports and exports.  This will also take a look at industrialization and how Dundee became renowned for its textile industry.  Is this a good idea?? I’m not sure, what does everyone else think?  Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Ahead of the informal presentation on Tuesday, I feel like my project is (finally!) starting to take shape, and I am excited to delve into sources in the coming weeks. After a helpful discussion on Tuesday, a chat with Milinda about possible texts to focus on, and an acceptance of the fact that a proper understanding of how to write transnational history will likely come throughout the semester as my project develops, I am in a place where I know where I am heading. 

The ‘hard-hitting’ title is currently still in production, but the focus of my study will be to understand how adaptations of Shakespeare’s Othello can be used as windows into reactions to oppression, particularly in post-colonial India and in Apartheid South Africa. In these cases, the English bard is reclaimed after generations of being symbolic of British superiority and racial oppression. By researching varying adaptations, over many mediums and cultural zones, I hope to discover similarities and differences between them, revealing how a 17th century play can be reinterpreted for and by new audiences, and is felt so very differently depending on context. 

The racial differences Shakespeare wrote about came from the background of cosmopolitan London, but a London where ‘otherness’ was essential to cementing identity at home. As exposure to Europeans and peoples further afield increased, so too did insularity and superiority. This is merely a starting off point to the long story of how Shakespeare and Othello have been used. I aim to focus on 20th/21st century adaptations, in an attempt to explain how Othello has been used to ‘write back’ to Shakespearean oppression after it held such a strong place in colonial education systems. An interesting perspective is that of Dennis Kennedy, and what he calls the ‘Great Shakespeare Paradox’;

“when we allege that Shakespeare is universal, what we are actually saying is that he has been continuously reinvented.”

Dennis Kennedy, ‘Global Shakespeare and Globalized Performance’, in James C. Bulman (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Performance, (2017).

Whether it be full-scale Bollywood film adaptations, or simply staging the original Othello in Apartheid Africa, I wish to answer the following question: How has Othello been used both as a commodity for widespread enjoyment, but simultaneously as a weapon against oppression and a rebuttal to the myth of the universal Bard? The answer will be revealed by studying him as a truly ‘Rhizomatic’ figure. He is decentralised and continuously erupting, beginning in ‘The Globe’ theatre, but infecting the world, while simultaneously also being affected by it.    

Ania Loomba, a literary scholar from Delhi, has rightly noted that; 

“Because Shakespeare too is such wide territory, appropriated by so many different kinds of readers and audiences, any book on Shakespeare and race cannot aim to be ‘comprehensive’ or ‘objective'”

Ania Loomba, Shakespeare, Race, and Colonialism, (Oxford, 2002), p. 21.

 This is true, but of course a history need not be comprehensive to be valuable. I hope that my study can ask some new questions and draw new parallels. This will be done by taking Othello as a commodity, but also as an idea, and assessing its adaptations. I will add to the debate surrounding how Shakespearean plays are so much more than plays, and thus they will continue to be experienced and loved differently by different people for centuries to come. 

I spent more than two weeks thinking about the topic for my research project. I had multiple ideas in mind that encompassed different historical epochs. After great deliberation and a very insightful conversation with Dr Struck, I decided to go ahead with my research on the Indian Suffragettes. My starting point was a little tricky as I was confused about whether a topic such as this would fall under comparative or connected histories. In the case of Indian Suffragettes, it is difficult to isolate them from the empire’s global networks. This is not to ignore that there were substantial differences between western and Indian suffragettes. 

The fight for the vote was not merely a ‘white’ phenomenon; women of colour were an integral part of it, making this a global issue. I was recommended Sumita Mukherjee’s ‘Indian Suffragettes: Female identities and transnational networks’ by Dr Banerjee. Mukherjee’s primary focus was to analyse the interactions between Indian and British women and their campaigns. Indian women were operating within different geographical spaces and simultaneously adopting various political identities. First, they were the Indian subjects of the British empire. Second, they worked closely with British feminists as allies for their voting rights; third, they showed solidarity towards the women across different colonies of the empire for a universal cause. They occupied international spaces for a myriad of reasons. In the past, most of the literature on Indian feminism revolved around the benevolence of the British reformers and how they nurtured and guided Indian women. Exploring Indian Suffragettes will help understand the agency of Indian women and their contributions to the global history of fighting for women’s rights

Halfway through the minimum amount of blog posts I mean, not for the semester, which is going by unusually fast in my opinion. I’ve been struggling to balance my time between studying full time and working full time in all honesty. But I like writing these blog posts. It allows me to sit and reflect on the work I’ve been doing for this class so far, and it’s giving me a space to write down all my thoughts and ideas for this long project!

I’m extremely excited to talk about Bruce Lee, an idol for me and my family. However, analysing his transnational/global reach makes it difficult to me as I can’t turn this essay into a film analysis or a narrative about how awesome he is. Finding the theory to analyse Bruce Lee is difficult, do I look at him through a transnational or global lens? How do I make this historical analysis in the context of theories? I don’t want to vomit a bunch of theories onto my paper, I think selecting one theory would be good and analysing it through that lens.

For my structure, I would talk about the connectivity between the East and West through Bruce Lee in a cold war context. However, do I call that transnational or global? Especially if I talk about other countries like India (Bollywood cinema) or Japan (Japanese Cinema).

Either way, this seems like a fun and exciting project. BUT I definitely need to research more because I’m just waffling at this point. I think I need to take a page out of Hannah’s book and make a mind map 🙂