This second edition of Othello has a new illustrated introduction by leading American scholar Ayanna Thompson which addresses such key issues as race religion & gender as well as looking at ways in which the play has been adapted in more recent times Othello is one of Shakespeare's great tragedies-written in the same five-year period as Hamlet King Lear & Macbeth The new introduction attends to the play's different meanings throughout history while articulating the historical context in which Othello was created paying particular attention to Shakespeare's source materials & the evidence about early modern constructions of racial & religious difference It also explores the life of the play in different historical moments demonstrating how meanings & performances develop accrue & metamorphose over time The volume provides a rich & current resource making this best-selling play edition ideal for today's students at advanced school & undergraduate level