Shakespeare as Content for Liberal Arts Education－Reading The Merchant of Venice and Othello from a Multi-cultural Perspective

Abstract

As part of liberal arts education, this study proposes multi-cultural education content by analyzing two works of Shakespeare,The Merchant of Venice and Othello, but as seen through a multi-cultural lens, in the hopes of cultivating a deeper understanding of our contemporary, multi-cultural society. The significance of classic works such as those of Shakespeare lies in the fact that we can learn the historical nature inherent in such works, which may allow us to better interpret our modern circumstances.According to Kristeva, any given community uses certain strategies to turn strangers into the "others," and to exclude them in order to maintain the status quo of that community. In the era of multi-culturalism, where the subject and the other must coexist, it is necessary to take into consideration issues of race, religion and culture, and the conflicts that often arise as a result of the differences between them.Reading The Merchant of Venice with a focus on Shylock, and from a multi-cultural perspective, shows us that the differences between race, religion and culture can be used as a sort of metric for racial discrimination and religious persecution among Venetian Christianity, which in turn reveals the social and cultural violence of the ruling majority enacted upon the minority group. Shylock, who keeps to himself as a Jew, faces contempt and insults, and finally perishes in desperation. On the other hand, in Othello, Othello seems to have successfully settled in as an immigrant to Venetian society though he embodies the inner nature of the other (i.e., he is a Moor). Following the values of Venice, however, Othello seems obsessed with himself as a (real) Venetian so that he never be aware of the ambivalence of the obsequious honour that Venice grants to him: both the contempt they feel for people of colour and the praise they have for successful soldiers.Both The Merchant of Venice and Othello have very persuasive and informative aspects to them, which could be used as multi-cultural, educational texts, especially in a society like ours that is steadily becoming more and more multi-cultural.

[Retracted] Innovation of French Interpretation Teaching Mode in the New Liberal Arts Environment

“…Park studied the training system of tourism management talents in combination with the core significance of the new liberal arts and proposed that the training system of tourism management talents should conform to the general trend of new technology revolution and industrial transformation and should integrate innovative elements in practical teaching [ 11 ]. Han discussed the new liberal arts teaching in the context of the information age and pointed out that relevant colleges should innovate teaching models and create intelligent learning classrooms to improve teaching efficiency [ 12 ]. Kim discussed the current situation of computer basic education in the University of Arts and Sciences under the background of the new liberal arts.…”