This is to introduce myself -- Hugh Craig from the Department of English at
the University of Newcastle. I will be responding to postings on the
Othello rap in the coming week as a long-time Shakespearean and
*Othello*-watcher. I have taught the play numerous times in university
courses and these days am involved with it professionally as an instance of
Shakespeare's style for computational-stylistics studies. These involve
defining with the computer an exact profile for the way Shakespeare wrote
(so that we can tell if he wrote the new "Shakespeare" plays and poems
people come up with occasionally) and also seeing how plays like this one
fit in with tragedy in general, with the way play styles were developing
over the Shakespearean period, and so on. But the first and most important
thing anyone wants to do with Shakespeare is to understand it for
themselves as something to read and to watch, and that'll be my starting
point in responding to your ideas this week.
D. H. Craig
Associate Professor, Department of English
Director, Centre for Literary and Linguistic Computing
The University of Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia
Phone +61 (0)2 49215162 Fax +61 (0)2 49216933
