OTHELLO+WEBQUESTS

=OTHELLO WEBQUESTS= = = =Your findings are to be presented to the class in the form of a poster or powerpoint:=

= GROUP 1 = = BIG QUESTION: = = What is the significance of these 3 places to Othello? = = Venice, Cyprus, & Mauritania =
 * [[image:mspope1/Fig-93.jpg width="560" height="410"]]

Othello’s country of origin.
====For all places, focus particularly on their history between 1400 and 1600. The play takes place sometime between these years, since Venice occupied Cyprus in 1489 and the island fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1571. You can include other historical information if you wish, but make sure you pay closer attention to the years listed above. ====

InfoPlease-Mauritania
====**Where is Venice, and what was it like in the sixteenth century? What was its economic **** status at that time? What was the Venetian’s relationship with the Turks? **====

For setting information specific to //Othello//, visit the following sites:
==== Othello: Race, Place,and Identity (see section on Venice) ==== ==== Encyclopedia of Literary Places (see sections on Venice and Cyprus) ====

 Othello | Comments on the Plot (see setting section; also contains information for Cyprus)
==== Shakespeare's Venetian Paradigm (see 2nd and 3rd paragraphs on perspectives of outsiders in ====

 Venice and the outsiders' perspectives of Venetian women)
====**Where is Cyprus? What was its importance in the sixteenth century? How are the Venetians ****and Turks of the Ottoman Empire related to Cyprus? **====

The Venetian Period in Cyprus
|| GROUP 2 =** BIG QUESTION: **= =** What is a Moor and what does [|Othello] look like? **= 1. Find quotes in the play that describe Othello Some quotes [|here:] and [|here] and [|here]

2. Look to see how [|Othello] has been portrayed o[|n film and in theatre]. Select a few of these examples and read and report on them.

3. Search out any drawings or paintings of [|Othello] to see how the character has been portrayed in art.

To what extent is [|Othello] a play about race and physicality? Can a white person play the title role in the 21st Century?

GROUP 3 =** BIG QUESTION: **= =** What were practices and ideas relating to marriage and family? How were women viewed (both in Elizabethan times in general and in //Othello//)? **=

ISE - Attitudes to Women
==== The Role of Women in //Othello//: A Feminist Reading (SPOILER ALERT: This article contains information on the ending of the play. If you are extremely averse to finding out how it ends, please do not read this article [have your partner read instead].) ====

Women's Rights --from Global Issues in Context
==== Gender Stats (for information on women's rights by country) ==== ==== Women's Rights --Global Issues (for links to articles detailing progress--or lack thereof--in women's rights) ====