Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

Controversy has surrounded The Merchant of Venice. Although some critics believe the play is not anti-Semitic, the present study shows that Shakespeare could not go against the current of Elizabethan anti-Semitism. The play reinforced the dominant discourses and stereotypes working against the Jews....

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Main Author:	Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2014
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7074/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7074/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7074/1/4648-14277-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-7074
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-70742016-12-14T06:43:02Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7074/ Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi, Controversy has surrounded The Merchant of Venice. Although some critics believe the play is not anti-Semitic, the present study shows that Shakespeare could not go against the current of Elizabethan anti-Semitism. The play reinforced the dominant discourses and stereotypes working against the Jews. Few Shakespearean characters are more hotly debated than Shylock, the Jewish usurer in The Merchant. Although he has a relatively small part, this multifaceted and influential character governs the play and his multidimensional nature complicates the work significantly. The play depicts him as a cruel, crafty and wicked Jew just as Elizabethan Christians would demand. The playwright takes the stereotype character presented to him and makes it more complex, but he leaves its anti-Semitic qualities untouched. The Merchant of Venice represents and reinforces the dominant discourses of law, religion and nationality that support the Christians and work against the Jews. As a comedy, it made the audience identify with the winners of the trial scene, the Christians. Therefore, nothing remains of the resisting voices and what is heard more often and more powerfully is the dominant discourse of the time voiced by the winners of the play. Shakespeare made a clear distinction between ‘self’ and ‘other’, did whatever at his disposal to defeat ‘the others’ of the play, deprived them of genuine identity and form a homogenised community where no resisting voice could be heard. Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM 2014 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7074/1/4648-14277-1-PB.pdf Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi, (2014) Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 20 (1). pp. 167-176. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/index
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	Controversy has surrounded The Merchant of Venice. Although some critics believe the play is not anti-Semitic, the present study shows that Shakespeare could not go against the current of Elizabethan anti-Semitism. The play reinforced the dominant discourses and stereotypes working against the Jews. Few Shakespearean characters are more hotly debated than Shylock, the Jewish usurer in The Merchant. Although he has a relatively small part, this multifaceted and influential character governs the play and his multidimensional nature complicates the work significantly. The play depicts him as a cruel, crafty and wicked Jew just as Elizabethan Christians would demand. The playwright takes the stereotype character presented to him and makes it more complex, but he leaves its anti-Semitic qualities untouched. The Merchant of Venice represents and reinforces the dominant discourses of law, religion and nationality that support the Christians and work against the Jews. As a comedy, it made the audience identify with the winners of the trial scene, the Christians. Therefore, nothing remains of the resisting voices and what is heard more often and more powerfully is the dominant discourse of the time voiced by the winners of the play. Shakespeare made a clear distinction between ‘self’ and ‘other’, did whatever at his disposal to defeat ‘the others’ of the play, deprived them of genuine identity and form a homogenised community where no resisting voice could be heard.
format	Article
author	Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi,
spellingShingle	Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi, Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
author_facet	Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi,
author_sort	Behnam Mirzababazadeh Fomeshi,
title	Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
title_short	Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
title_full	Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
title_fullStr	Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
title_full_unstemmed	Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice
title_sort	reinforcing the dominant discourse in shakespeare’s the merchant of venice
publisher	Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik, FSSK, UKM
publishDate	2014
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7074/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7074/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7074/1/4648-14277-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:48:40Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:48:40Z
_version_	1777406072307318784

Reinforcing the dominant discourse in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

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