THE GHOST OF OTHELLO: Shakespeare, identity and language in Jason Allen-Paisant's Self-Portrait As Othello

This thesis is a close reading of the collection of poems Self-Portrait As Othello (2023) by the Jamaican author Jason Allen-Paisant. The collection, which was awarded the Forward and T.S. Eliot prize, entwines Shakespeare’s tragedy about the Moor of Venice with the author's own life, with his experience as a Black immigrant in Europe. The introduction contextualises Self-Portrait As Othello as an example of postcolonial poetry as well as a contemporary Shakespearean adaptation to then discuss the text more closely by focusing on three main topics: the connection to Shakespeare’s Othello, identity and language. The first chapter analyses how Allen-Paisant engages with Shakespeare’s Othello. It foregrounds the sections of the collection that directly reference the play and examines how the author relates to and adapts the tragedy. The second chapter discusses how the text depicts the author’s creole identity which eludes conventional modes of representation. The analysis touches on the weight of genealogy and travel as a form of "spiritual questing” (Regis 2025, 6). The third chapter is dedicated to the use of language in the text, the power of words and the connection to multilingualism as the collection features excerpts in Patois, French, Italian and German . The conclusion offers an overview of these elements and discusses how they contribute to the construction of a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare that takes the discussion of racism, colonialism and identity to the 21st century.