Diet Racism in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice"

I haven't made a blog post in a while, and as I recall I promised to post essays I wrote for class. Unfortunately (from a blog reader's perspective) I am in writing-intensive classes, which fortunately (from my perspective) means that I get to re-write papers! As of yet I have not finished re-writing the essay I wanted to post, so instead of a proper essay, here is the contents of a forum post I made about Merchant of Venice for my Queer Readings class, contemplating historical difference:

In this short essay, I address a surprise I encountered in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and the questions, concerns, and parallels to modern culture I drew from it. The main surprise I encountered while reading Merchant of Venice was the casual racism of Portia. I knew before starting to read Merchant that it has rampant antisemitism, but I was not expecting additional racist remarks towards black folk. There is, of course, rampant racism in our own time and so the presence of it was not a true surprise, but rather the insidious way it was taken for granted was what startled me. 

After the Prince of Morocco chooses the wrong casket, Portia’s line upon his departure is “Let all of his complexion choose me so.” (II.vii.79) In the notes of my copy of the text (The Norton Shakespeare, 3rd Edition), there is a performance comment that notes how many directors cut this line in order that Portia appear as a more sympathetic character. This censure raises the question of how this is replicated in our contemporary culture.

The erasure of unsavory comments in not unlike what I have heard called “diet racism” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdyin6uipy4). That is to say, the person in question presents themselves as being accepting and encouraging of equality, but in actuality still holds racist beliefs and makes racist comments when not in the earshot of the person they are insulting,

Throughout scene seven, Portia makes no outward criticism about the Prince of Morocco, but as soon as he leaves she makes the disparaging comment about his complexion.   Five centuries after Shakespeare, we are still held subject to this casual racism, and so examining this lack of cultural difference by closely looking at Portia's language can help us understand the way in which we have constructed the casual racism that can be found in our own time and place.


Our own historical and cultural moment is different in that this casual racism is often secluded when present in media, unless the character in question is the villain of the piece. In contrast, Portia is one of the protagonists in Merchant and the audience is meant to sympathize with her. 

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Last week, my department had a screening of the documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"  by Werner Herzog. The documentary is centered around the Chauvet Cave in southern France. Said cave contains amazing works of prehistoric art, dating back over 30,000 years. It was in constant use for so long that some overlapping images are thought to have been painted with thousands of years between them.

Thanks for the cave's preservation are owed to a rock slide that buried the cave's original entrance, and kept the save in relatively perfect isolation until 1994, when the cave was discovered by Jean-Marie Chauvet (for whom the cave is named) and his two friends Éliette Brunel and Christian Hillaire. The cave has sustained some damage in that time - it is located near a large body of water, and some seepage has eroded some of the paintings, but overall the cave is incredibly intact.

I greatly enjoyed the film for a variety of reasons. Not only were the images of the cave itself beautiful, but the craft of the film was amazing. The film balances information with artistry in a way that made it so that I felt like I was learning and yet there was never a dull moment. The music throughout the documentary was eerie, and at times tense, but fit well with the overall thematic vibe of the film.

While the art that was intentionally painted in the cave is fantastic, almost as astonishing are the cascade of glittering calcite crystals, which not only form stalagmites and stalactites, but also coat many of the skulls and bones left behind from both rituals and the fact that the location functioned as a bear cave at some point in its history.

One line that stood out to me in the film was "We are locked in history. They were not." This line resonated with me quite deeply, as I have long wondered at the idea of preservation. So much of our time is spent preserving the past, that sometimes I wonder whether that is harmful to our present. While I feel that our history is important I also feel that by staying entrenched in the past can be damaging to our future. The constant struggle of innovation and tradition. I'm not sure what the answer is, or if there even is one. I'll let you know if I ever find it.

Cheers,

Talia

PS: If you would like to watch the film yourself, it is available on Netflix and Amazon Instant Video for purchase/rental and select subscriptions. If you are interested in learning more about the cave, and/or viewing images of the cave and its replica, I have pasted additional resources below.

https://www.ancient.eu/Chauvet_Cave/

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/