Intertextuality as Mimesis and Metaphor: The Deviant Phraseology of Caryl Phillips’s Othello

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Abstract:This article considers the intertextuality of the “Othello” fragments in Caryl Phillips’s The Nature of Blood in the light of theoretical characterisations of intertextuality as “deviant phraseology”, “ungrammaticality” and “impropriety”. Far from being merely an exercise in postmodern cut and paste or a conventional subaltern challenge to a hegemonic cultural text, the deviant phrasing of Phillips’s “Othello” fragments proposes that the cognitive challenge posed by intertextuality may, by analogy with metaphor, become an exercise in intercultural empathy which, if carried out with any degree of success, may equip readers better for life in a multicultural or cosmopolitan society.Keywords: Intertextuality, alterity, Caryl Phillips, metaphor, The Nature of Blood.Resumen:A la luz de las caracterizaciones teóricas de la intertextualidad como “fraseología desviada”, “no gramaticalidad” e “impropiedad”, el presente artículo ofrece una consideración de los fragmentos “otelianos” de

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