Abstract

William Shakespeare's Othello is fundamentally a play about epistemology--how does one know what he/she knows amidst the sea of words, evidence, and misdirection? Traditionally, the problem of knowledge in Othello has been treated as an intellectual problem of the mind. However, this thesis argues that the play purposefully draws attention to the limits of what the mind can know by way of the eye (what is seen) and ear (what is spoken or heard), instead offering an alternative epistemology that is felt through embodiment. When Desdemona's words no longer have the power to affect what Othello believes, Desdemona's answers to what cannot be seen, nor reasoned through, or defended with language are said to “go by water” (4.3.106). What Desdemona offers as “answers” to things seemingly unknowable--her faithfulness and love--is an alternative epistemology of felt knowledge that is understood through the metaphorical embodiment of water, depicted through the watery vessel of the female body and communicated through the fluid medium of song. Significantly, only through fluid embodiment does song become intelligible as a material way by which interior knowledge can be shared. Separate from what may be observed, and the words that transmit meaning to the mind, felt knowledge is uniquely able to penetrate and share knowledge between bodies, suggesting that felt knowledge is epistemologically relational.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; English

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