Act I Scene III:“Her father loved me; oft invited me; / Still question'd me the story of my life, / From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes, / That I have passed. / I ran it through, even from my boyish days…”This is a long but important speech as we are given an insight intoOthello’s past. In this passage, Shakespeare draws ontravel writing, a popular contemporary genre in which European travellers would explore previously unvisited territory and write down their experiences in a fanciful and exoticised way. The difference here is that Othello, an African, is describing his own story but using thestyleof anexoticised travel narrativeto please his European listeners.