Enduring Fictions of Possession--Sexual Infidelity and Homicidal Rage in Shakespeare and Late Modernity (Glossing Othello)

Abstract

A failed reform bid to exclude ?infidelity' as a trigger for loss of control in the new loss of control defence introduced in England and Wales in 2009 occasions this return to an enduring puzzle: why should men who kill ?unfaithful' women continue to receive law's compassion? The recent case of R v Clinton, Parker and Evans places this issue firmly back on the agenda. Informed by the latest wave of law scholarship that is exploring Shakespeare's insights into a host of socio-legal questions, this article explores critical readings of Othello, that brilliant dissection of infidelity-inspired femicide that goes so far as to query the notion that a wife's sexual infidelity warrants violent retaliation. The article highlights a strain of Shakespearean scholarship that reads Othello as a prescient examination of the operation of commodity fetishism. This reading, it is suggested, provides new insights into the purchase of fictions of possession still being retailed in cases of ?infidelity' homicide today.