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The article reviews the theatrical production of William Shakespeare's play "Othello," directed by Ola Ince and starring Ken Nwosu, Ralph Davis and Poppy Gilbert, held at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London, England on February 8, 2024.

This article argues that Tayeb Salih, in his most famous novel, tackles Shakespeare's best-known play in the Arabic world, Othello, but not in the usual fashion. Instead of adapting the protagonist, Salih ventriloquises him to force a fresh understanding of Othello by Western readers, thus challenging what was at the time of his novel's publication a largely nineteenth-century reading of Othello. At the same time, Salih creates a hybridised protagonist of his own, one who comes to understand that he is neither Sudanese nor English. This reading thus sheds light on both Shakespeare's play and Salih's novel, arguing that the novel allows us to understand the play contextually rather than anachronistically. Fundamentally, Salih destabilises Arab notions of identity, arguing that the world has become 'all mixed up' and needs to move beyond essentialist identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers Not Now, Sweet Desdemona (1967) by the South African playwright Murray Carlin as an intervention in the critical and performance histories of Othello, situating Shakespeare's tragedy within contemporary postcolonial and apartheid-era debates. Carlin's play reveals multiple interlocking layers of meta-commentary to illustrate the ways in which Othello is haunted by postcolonialism. This reading builds on Marvin Carlson's notion of the haunted stage as well as Joanne Tompkins's account of postcolonial metatheatre, in which an embedded counter-discourse assists in the rereading, restructuring, and resituating of a "base" play. In the case of Not Now, Sweet Desdemona, Carlin engages metatheatrically with racist and misogynist discourses as well as with fields that are less often mentioned in discussions of postcolonial metatheatre, such as literary criticism and theatre history. Through these engagements, Carlin positions Othello as both a historical vector for racist ideologies and a more contemporary tool for challenging and dismantling systemic oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores Desdemona's "Willow Song" in Shakespeare's Othello as her poignant swansong, contrasting it with Othello's powerful final speech that solidifies his identity. Topics discussed include the symbolic use of the song as a collective narrative shared by Desdemona, Barbary, and Emilia, highlighting Desdemona's marginalized voice amidst Othello's narrative dominance and societal constraints on women's speech.

Othello truly loves Desdemona and yet, this paper argues, he wants on some level to believe in her infidelity. But if he loves her so much, why would he want to believe in something that would destroy that love? The answer to this mystery, I contend, must be found in the connections between jealousy, love, and the great existential fragility to which love can expose us—connections that Shakespeare's play is capable of illuminating in uniquely powerful and profound ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I use the term "formalism" to name the tendency of compulsion to reduce experience, through repetition, to a simple shape, rhythm, and intensity. This essay shows how compulsion's reduction of the self to just a few characteristics enables—even solicits—analogy across different contexts. Focusing on Othello , I consider several aspects of Shakespeare's staging of compulsion: the two-way traffic between religious and secular domains; the splitting of the self, which often entails the projection of the self onto others; and the role of such splitting in the representation of racialized violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jealousy has been disparaged as psychologically debilitating and morally flawed since well before Shakespeare wrote Othello and is indeed represented—particularly well—as far back as in Homer's portrayal of gods and goddesses in The Iliad. According to some of these traditional views, often shared by philosophers, psychologists and the general public, jealousy is the sign, if not of an irredeemably corrupt mind, then at least of an excessively possessive and insecure character. But does jealousy always indicate some sort of flaw or failure? Is jealousy rerehensible in all contexts? In the present paper, I intend to suggest some modifications to the view that it is, by giving jealousy a more sympathetic and charitable hearing than it normally receives, and suggesting that jealousy might, in some cases, be justifiable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the cannon of Shakespeare's criticism, Othello's Desdemona is often depicted as an icon of modesty, wifeliness, and Christian virtue; however, many psychoanalytic critics tout a more venal and meretricious interpretation of her character. The subtle process of gradually goading teen Desdemona into the trap of a prostituted, soft-porn practitioner by the male agency is orchestrated through extolling her to an exquisitely beautiful, feminine icon while dropping seemingly innocuous innuendoes of the need to offer such beauty and charm, whether platonically or carnally, to men. Her culpable passivity and disinclination to unequivocally reject attempts to prostitute her render her in collusion to her moral descent. Taking her amorous history, erotic propensity, and resolute decision-making, Desdemona strikes us as a sexual experimenter who marries Othello for her own gratification, having turned away many European princes. Shakespeare projects an image of her as an exquisitely beautiful celebrity who takes pride in flaunting her charms, seducing men, and leaving a trail of broken hearts. In the psychologically intense slap scene, without verbally agreeing to the behests of her spouse-turned-pimp, she nonetheless undertakes his every utterable and non-utterable whim. Desdemona's sudden, inexplicable reticence to spurn Othello's prompting in this scene while surrounded by her Venetian compatriots who are oxymoronically transformed to function as depraved, ferocious voyeurs reinforce her image as purposely feeble and unerringly eroticized, rendering her a complicit performer rather than a helpless victim. Whether willing or compelled, Desdemona's conflicting, character-trope served Shakespeare's performative histrionics, business acumen, and rendered Othello a popular, considerably successful classic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the theme of the tragic mistake of the main character in Shakespeare’s Othello, based on the violation of generally accepted moral norms of Venetian society. The course of Othello's vain struggle and tragic fall is described, as well as the unfolding of the plot in the light of the establishment of a new moral and social order. Othello's problem lies in his belonging to a different race and his marriage to Desdemona, a representative of the Venetian high class. The relationship between Othello and Iago is analysed in the light of the confrontation between good and evil. His character is so noble, his suffering so heartbreaking, that it arouses in most readers a passion of mingled love and pity that they feel, as for no other Shakespearean hero. The plot of the play revolves around the love between Othello and Desdemona and the manipulative actions of Iago, who makes that love unhappy and tragic. Othello is a man who has succeeded in his life, thanks to his own abilities and the independent decisions he makes. However, there is the villain Iago. Out of hatred for Othello, he tries, from the very beginning, to arouse Othello's doubts about Desdemona's fidelity. Iago is a Machiavellian hero who uses concealment and deception as a means to achieve his own selfish goals. In the last act, we see the destruction caused by passion. Othello asks Desdemona to confess her sin, repent and enter the other world clean. He acts like a priest who grieves for his child and prays for his redemption. He is the redeemer and the jailer at the same time. However, Othello enters the role of a cruel murderer, suffocating the innocent light of her life. The noble hero changes and perishes under the influence of the vian Iago, unaware of the presence of an evil enemy until the very end. That fall is quite natural and logical considering Iago's insidiousness and vile calculation. Othello may have had little knowledge of Desdemona, but his downfall is the result of his deep humanity, selflessness, and faith in human virtue. The basic element that drives Othello's fate is his inability to see reality. Othello is considered to be credulous. He easily succumbs to Iago's suggestions, because he is not rational and does not possess common sense, and this, according to him, is the result of his underdeveloped mind. When it comes to his relationship with Desdemona, he is unable to see that she has not sinned, which indicates that he is not a romantic idealist who sees in her qualities that she does not have. Desdemona is not important to him, but his vision of Desdemona. All this indicates that his decline is, above all, an intellectual decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this autoethnographic essay, the author reflects upon and interrogates racialised trends in American theatre stemming from participation as the silent role of 'Othello's man' in a college production of Othello. Using black flesh as an object to be exploited for cultural capital by white theatregoers and theatremakers, the author adopts an Afro-Pessimist methodology to consider how non-speaking black characters in early modern dramatic performance become a spectacle emptied of actual agency or 'being', akin to a stage property. The inclusion of black actors in mostly white Shakespeare productions often leads to mental anguish for the performers, who inevitably become enmeshed in the anti-blackness of Shakespeare's dramaturgy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the cinematic aspects of Shakespeare's Othello adapted by Vishal Bharadwaj in his film Omkara released in 2006, achieved in terms of language, culture, characters, events, and themes. It talks about the typical Indian sensibility which exists even in the 21st century. The message given by Vishal Bharadwaj shows a stereotypical patriarchal society that exerts power on women. The film genre is Drama/Crime which shows the issue of politics, caste, sect, domestic violence, racism, etc, and explores the written play into a cinematic art form. This paper will explore patriarchy through Laura Mulvey's concept of 'scopophilia', feminism will be explored with reference to Simone de Beauvoir's The second sex, the connection between film and langue will be seen as suggested by Christian Metz, and also the concept of 'High Culture' given by John Storey will be put to use. Throughout the paper, we are going to explain how every incident precedes the other and builds up controversy for the hero in context with the Indian rigid mindset. However, the surface of the film deals with the notion of jealousy and the metaphor of Kamarbandh (an Indian piece of jewellery worn on the waist) which works as a predecessor of ancient culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the portrayal and representation of racism in early modern England in William Shakespeare's play "Othello". Topics include the inscription of racial identity onto Othello by the inhabitants of Venice, a City in Italy; the mode of disgust plays a central role in how Othello is perceived by others in the play; and the connection between race and emotion in Early Modern English Literature.

Copyright of Cahiers Elisabethains: A Biannual Journal of English Renaissance Studies is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines how instructors may engage students in literature courses by leveraging students' affective responses through a digital commonplace book. Corresponding to representations of identity in Shakespeare's 1603 play Othello, the commonplace book allows students to curate texts and consider how such arrangements reflect and construct their self‐narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the Yiddish Othello translation produced under Soviet state auspices by the Russian Jewish folklorist Y. Goldberg and published in 1935 by the State Press of Belorussia. It is the first study devoted to Goldberg's Yiddish Shakespeare translations. The article will consider the ways in which Goldberg's translation reflects a tension between a modernising Soviet ideology on the one hand, and traditional Eastern European Jewish culture on the other. The former is manifested in the translation through its use of an accessible Soviet Yiddish style; through Goldberg's avoidance of citations from classical Jewish sources; and through his characterisation of Desdemona as an admirably modern and progressive woman. The latter is manifested through domesticating elements, specifically allusions to Jewish traditions such as oylemhaze 'the Present World', taneysim 'fast days', and yichus (Jewish ancestral pedigree); and references to Eastern European Jewish realia (e.g. herring and turnips). Examination of Goldberg's work provides a fascinating perspective on an understudied aspect of the Jewish relationship with Shakespeare. The article fits into the wider context of Jewish language, literature, and culture in the early Soviet period, and of multicultural and minority-language Shakespeare more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the innovative approach to experiencing theatre in higher education through The Untitled Othello Project at Sacred Heart University. Topics include the project's methodology of "Untitling" to explore Shakespeare's "Othello," the integration of diverse scholarly and artistic perspectives, and the development of the "Dramatic Humanities" model, which emphasizes embodied, collaborative learning and social justice.

This essay examines a tradition of philosophical counseling developed during the Renaissance. This tradition involves a language of “philosophical mysteries” and so called “speaking pictures”, where counsel employs an iconography involving myth designed to illustrate or allude to Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas. It shows how this tradition of philosophical counsel is employed by Shakespeare in the tragedy Othello, Moor of Venice, and how inattention to this tradition by most Othello critics has lead to a failure to recognize that Othello is a deeply philosophical play with metaphysical, epistemological, moral, and aesthetic dimensions. Finally, this paper suggests that a new frontier for contemporary philosophical practice consists in literary criticism. Philosophical counselors are trained in detecting and understanding the philosophical problems of real individuals in the real world and hence presumably the philosophical issues and orientation of characters in works of literature as well, thus correcting the current tendency to overly psychologize literary criticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ayanna Thompson has publicly discussed her role as "Othello Whisperer": she is called in to help Black actors struggling with playing the role of Othello. The reason Black actors struggle with performing this role is because it was not written for them: rather, Othello is a play for white people about how they feel about how Black men are treated. Othello's early identification as the only Moor in the play marks him for unequal treatment and destruction and, to avoid feeling white guilt over watching this unfair treatment of a Black man, Iago is offered as a scapegoat to give white, middle-class, liberal audiences someone to blame for Othello's fall, a role I call the "racist-function." Continuing to (re)produce the play in this manner allows the white audiences for which it is intended to avoid recognizing their own complicity in structural antiblackness. This article traces how the racist-function has changed and evolved over time to meet the needs of white liberal audiences by first analyzing how the text is structured in the Folio and Quarto editions, then demonstrating how later stage and film productions have continued to center whiteness, including case studies of Nicholas Hytner's 2013 National Theatre and Iqbal Khan's 2015 RSC stage productions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intertextual elements between Jordan Peele's Get Out and Shakespeare's Othello. The researcher applies Bazerman's model of intertextuality to examine the similarities and differences between Peele's movie and Shakespeare's play. In comparing Get Out to Othello, the paper argues that, not only do both texts centre on an accomplished Black man who is forced to confront the racist assumptions of white society, but it also explores how that white society mobilises stereotypes in order to manipulate and nullify Black agency. From the intertextuality perspective, the paper argues that there are noticeable narrative and thematic parallels in Get Out film and Othello. Although the selected texts differ in their genre, the geography and period of time where and when they were produced, they manifest similar events and themes. The American movie Get Out surfaces such themes of racial stereotyping and treachery much like how Othello exposes these themes. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate how Peele recontextualises and reconfigures the racial dynamics of Shakespeare's Othello in the so-called "post-racial" America and how he positions himself in relation to these racial issues. An intertextual reading of the two selected texts will widen the scope of understanding each of these aspects and reveal how intertextuality works between these two literary pieces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at reading Shakespeare’s play Othello through the prism of cognitive linguistics, more specifically, through the lens of conceptual metaphor theory. Metaphorical linguistic expressions that have animals in the source domain are extracted from the play so that matters of race and gender could be discussed from below the level of words, where cognition and conceptualization occur. As the analysis of metaphorical linguistic expressions progresses, the representation of evil will appear to be intertwined with the perception of gender and race, becoming yet another cognitive interest of the literary text. While African American studies, critical race theory, post-colonial studies, Marxist and feminist readings have immensely benefitted the comprehension of the play, conceptual metaphor theory promises to explore and explain how a derogatory perception of “Other” emerges in Othello, along with the offensive language that embodies it. Additional relevant concepts that account for the disturbing pace of the plot towards the catastrophe and tragic end are indoctrination and manipulation. These are specifically related to Iago’s perceptual playing around with unstable and highly sensitive notions such as race, gender, fallen virtue, degraded and demonic human nature, which he presents through disquieting mental images conveyed by powerful metaphorical language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the perception of race among Middle Eastern readers, especially Saudi students, who are studying English literature, with focus on Shakespeare's Othello , to demonstrate the complexity of perceiving race among Saudi readers by linking it to the concept of 'colour-blindness'. The article highlights the importance of acknowledging one's own identity in relation to teaching and reading literature, since interpreting the text is based on the position the reader holds in relation to the narrative in front of him/her, and the apprehension of the cultural context of the text. Shakespeare's Othello is a work that poses an interesting challenge to Saudi students since they do not realise the linguistic cues used by Shakespeare to denote the racial inequality the protagonist of the play is facing. Such phenomenon is explored in the article as an example of colour-blindness as their initial reading of the text did not count for Othello's position in the play as a 'person of colour'. The concept of decolonization is explored through how, after focusing on the element of race, Saudi students became acutely aware of their position as a reader of an English literary text that is part of a different culture than theirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews a theatrical production "Othello" presented at Women's Theatre Festival through Zoom from 8–10 and 16–17 April 2021.

In this "post-postracial" world that conveniently equates Blackness with race—and, in so doing, perpetuates the false notion that white people are raceless beings—it is not always the case that whiteness is rendered visible and thus presented through theater as a category that necessitates critical examination. Yet, with Keene , which traces Kai and Tyler's interracial love story and riffs on Shakespeare's Othello , Anchuli Felicia King accomplishes this difficult task by creating a deeply engaging play that is color-conscious, as opposed to "colorblind," especially with respect to whiteness. In this satirical and timely dramatic work, King invites her audience to consider racial identity and socio-cultural belonging as she highlights negative and damaging aspects of predominantly white professions—academia and performance art—that extend beyond Shakespeare Studies and the theater world. Through Tyler's historically informed dreams, aspects of nineteenth-century Black actor Ira Aldridge's life appear in vivid detail, ultimately revealing life parallels of (sexual) objectification, anti-Black racism, isolation, and betrayal between Tyler and Aldridge, parallels that resonate with the trajectory of Shakespeare's tragic titular character Othello. Thrown against the sharp, racist white backgrounds of their respective worlds, backgrounds so sharp that they hurt physically, psychologically, and emotionally, these three Black male figures stand out, much like the Actor character in Keith Hamilton Cobb's dazzling play American Moor. Considering the dramatic Black genealogy that has developed from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, from Othello to Keene , this essay examines the "productive discomfort" generated by King's art. This article challenges white people, and all who operate with internalized white supremacy and anti-Blackness, to examine themselves and interrogate their own racist ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that the word "hint" assumes a particular importance in the work of Shakespeare, especially in Othello. Shakespeare has often been cited as though he were one of the first writers to use the word in its modern sense as "A slight indication intended to be caught by the intelligent; a suggestion or implication conveyed in an indirect or covert manner" (OED), but there are earlier examples. The modern use of "hint" appears to have developed during Shakespeare's writing career, originating in works of theology and polemical religious debate, as a means of explaining a linguistic act of uncertain provenance and meaning that may only exist in the mind of the reader or listener. Shakespeare is probably the first literary author to use the word as we now understand it, developing its ambiguous significance in his plays, most importantly in Othello. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the literary motif in the works of authors William Shakespeare, Longus, Samuel Richardson and Harriet Jacobs. They include Longus' "Daphnis and Chloe," Shakespeare's play "Othello," Richardson's novel "Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded," and Jacob's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." It also discusses Henry Fielding's 1741 parody of Richardson, "An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews."

El articulo discute sobre el Otelo de Shakespeare con el enfoque de los ceslos y desdicha en asuntos militares y sociales. El articulo también se centra en la historia de amor en el contexto de un conflicto cultural con ingredientes políticos y militares diferencias sociales y culturales acerca del Otelo y potencia marítima que registrado en la historia, cuya acción ocurre en el período de su dominio sobre Chipre para contener a los turcos.

Copyright of Cahiers Elisabethains: A Biannual Journal of English Renaissance Studies is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Cahiers Elisabethains: A Biannual Journal of English Renaissance Studies is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article reviews a theatrical production 'Othello' by Stratford Festival at Stratford, Ontario from 3 May–27 October 2019 directed by Nigel Shawn Williams.

This paper investigates Gholām-Hossein Sāedi's appropriation of Shakespeare's Othello in his seminal play Othello in Wonderland. The play is worth investigating since it disentangles itself from the Shakespearean logocentric tradition to depict the plights of Sāedi's fellow artists at a critical point in Iranian history. It is argued that Sāedi's self-exile following the 1979 Revolution enabled him to present a critique of censorship and the authoritarian demands of the hegemonic power of the time. Sāedi's artistic concerns, which are temporally and locally constrained, result in an autonomous Othello in which different discourses compete with each other in a class struggle among members of a theatrical group, agents of a hegemonic power and Sāedi the playwright. While this paper is principally concerned with how Sāedi's adaptation deterritorializes the source text to challenge the official power and unfold marginalised voices, it finally discusses the applicability of Sāedi's criticism to modern times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paul Robeson was a remarkable singer, a brilliant actor, and an engaged political activist. In his college years he was a football star. Throughout his life he campaigned for the rights the poor, the disadvantaged, and the oppressed. His most famous theatrical role was Othello; when he played the part in London and in New York he was one of the first black actors to do so. The New York production ran on Broadway longer than any other William Shakespeare play had done. But Robeson's life, which included political and racial attacks, the loss of his US passport, and claims that he was "un-American" (he visited the Soviet Union and compared its treatment of minorities favorably to that of the United States) led to a series of encounters in which Othello , both the role and the play, was in effect reenacted in public, culminating in Robeson's eloquent testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. This essay traces the connections, and the sometimes-uncanny crossovers, between Robeson's life and Shakespeare's play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews a theatrical production of William Shakespeare's "Othello," directed by Iqbal Khan and performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England in June 2015 and from April 23 to August 22, 2020.

A literary criticism of the tragedy "Othello," by William Shakespeare is presented. It explores the farewell words of the characters Othello and Desdemona, the death speeches of Shakespeare's protagonists, the self-alienation expressed by Othello's speech, Othello's awareness of his racial identity, and author T. S. Eliot's interpretation of Othello's defensiveness and his need that others speak of him.

Shakespeare's Othello has been staged overwhelmingly through the racial relationship between the two protagonists, Othello and Iago, at the expense of another protagonist, Desdemona, partly because of the prominence of racial and military perspectives in European modernity, and partly because of the relatively scarce textual presence of Desdemona. Despite the tremendous efforts and contributions of feminist criticism to rectify the imbalance, this female protagonist has been enclosed in the realm of a patriarchal framework that divides women between 'chaste wife' and 'villainous whore'. Miyagi Satoshi's adaptation and staging of Miyagi-Noh Othello, presented at Shizuoka Arts Theatre in 2018, was a remarkable attempt to address this issue, by transforming the whole play into a memory recollected and enacted by the Ghost of Desdemona, through utilising the Japanese 'Mugen-Noh' format. Through his mimetic dramaturgy employing the 'division of speech and movement' method, Miyagi succeeded in recovering not only Desdemona's testimonies regarding her affectionate and passionate relationship with Othello but also multiple women's 'her-stories' hidden and disregarded by male-centred histories authorised by the Venetian ruling class. The detailed analysis of Miyagi's unique and innovative production will unravel the complicated relationship between actors' words and their bodies in theatrical productions, as well as offer a fresh insight into the hitherto underrated aspect of Othello as an alternative story of inducing everyone's suffering into spiritual atonement by reviving the love which has always already been present even in a society torn by racism, genderism and militarism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the possible musical source for Iago's song "Let Me the Cannikin Clink" in the play "Othello" by William Shakespeare. It mentions the role of the drinking songs of Iago as dramatic insights into the plot of the play. It explains the reason behind the possibility that the lutebook "Matthew Holmes MS Dd9.33" is the source for the song. Also cited is the importance of the tendency of the playwright to modify extant melodies to understanding the sources of his songs.

The article reviews the theatrical production "Othello" presented by the American Shakespeare Center at the Blackfriars Playhouse and the Blackburn Inn, Staunton, VA from 31 July–18 October 2020.