Professor Robert Watson revisits the Bard’s famous tragedy “Othello” and its surprisingly modern lessons Nov. 13 during the 141st Faculty Research Lecture
There’s a certain duality to admiring Shakespeare onstage while bristling (maybe) at the memory of studying his plays in high school in the classroom. For many, the latter conjures images of dense textbooks, indecipherable Elizabethan English and the dreaded iambic pentameter. If you were lucky, a teacher wheeled out a large TV cart at the end of the unit and put on Kenneth Branagh’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” and maybe something clicked.
UCLA English professor Robert Watson, however, wants to remind us that the Bard was in the business of entertaining people — not giving them homework. And more than 400 years later, Shakespeare’s plays still have a few surprises up their billowing chemise sleeves if we care to listen.
Watson, who will deliver UCLA’s 141st Faculty Research Lecture, is a scholar of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Renaissance culture. He focuses on the intersections of literature, environmentalism and human behavior. An especially ripe test case for the latter is “Othello,” which Watson fell in love with during high school while playing a minor role in a production. The play remains his favorite of Shakespeare’s works as each return to the text reveals new possibilities, even after centuries of scholarly study.
On Friday, Nov. 13, Watson will present the lecture “Rethinking Shakespeare’s Othello: New Perspectives and Insights” at 2 p.m. in Schoenberg Hall. His examination will explore themes of race, masculinity, religious tensions and language within the play. Watson hopes to reveal the surprisingly contemporary anxieties within the text about identity and belonging, and whether love must be earned.
Ahead of the lecture, UCLA Newsroom spoke with Watson about his lifelong fascination with Shakespeare, the mirror that “Othello” holds up to human nature and why the Bard might be worth revisiting, even for those who found him intimidating in high school.
Photo of Rob Watson credit: Christopher Cao/UCLA