This essay reconsiders the significance of Cyprus as the location of Othello, arguing that awareness of the island's capture by Ottoman forces in 1571 will have been central to the play's early reception. This context broadens the significance of the tragedy beyond the original domestic focus ...
Famagusta now falls under the de facto control of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the unrecognised government which runs the north side of Cyprus. Ever since the Turkish invasion of 1974 which divided the island, the holiday resorts have been cordoned off and left to decay by the Turk...
The tragedies, on the other hand, construct war as integral to their mood of crisis; conflict creates as well as mirrors the rottenness of Hamlet's Denmark, for example, and the discord of Othello's Cyprus. The wars of the Roman plays embody the tragic hubris of imperial politics — 'O...