Barbarous Play

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Barbarous Play

Race on the English Renaissance Stage

Lara Bovilsky

Table of Contents

$22.50 paper
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4965-5
ISBN-10: 0-8166-4965-0

$67.50 cloth
ISBN: 978-0-8166-4964-8
ISBN-10: 0-8166-4964-2

Identifies the parallels between early modern and present-day conceptions of race.

Like our own, early modern beliefs about race depended on metaphorical, selective, and contradictory understandings of how membership in groups is determined. Although race took distinctive forms in the past, the fallacies that underlie early modern racial experience generally are precisely—and surprisingly—the same as those in contemporary culture.

Exploring the similar underpinnings of early modern and contemporary ideas of difference, Barbarous Play examines English Renaissance understandings of race as depicted in drama. Reading plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster, and Middleton, Bovilsky offers case studies of how racial meanings are generated by narratives of boundary crossing—especially miscegenation, religious conversion, class transgression, and moral and physical degeneracy. In the process, she reveals deep parallels between the period’s conceptions of race and gender.

Barbarous Play contests the widely held view that race and racism depend on modern science for their existence and argues that understanding just what is false and figurative in past depictions of race, such as those found in Othello, The Merchant of Venice, The White Devil, and The Changeling, can clarify the illogic of present-day racism.

“An extraordinarily rich and impressive book.” —Platforms

“Barbarous Play is a rich and provocative work. I suspect and hope Bovilsky’s text will be pivotal in the field of race on the early modern stage.” —Renaissance Quarterly

“This is a very timely book. One of the strengths of [Barbarous Play] is the range of research that has been carried out, and the critical analysis is of the highest order. It offers much in its detailed case studies and close investigations, and is certainly worth consideration.” —M/C Reviews

“Insightful, nuanced and a persuasive contribution to ongoing debates about race. Bovilsky’s book is impressive in its clarity and focus. Each chapter is succinctly and cogently argued as well as engaging.” —Shakespeare Bulletin

Lara Bovilsky is assistant professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis.

208 pages | 6 x 9 | 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Race on the Renaissance Stage
1. Desdemona’s Blackness
2. Exemplary Jews and the Logic of Gentility
3. The English Italian
4. Race, Science, and Aversion
Coda

Notes
Bibliography
Index

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Barbarous Play *Race on the English Renaissance Stage* Lara Bovilsky Table of Contents		$22.50 paper ISBN: 978-0-8166-4965-5 ISBN-10: 0-8166-4965-0 $67.50 cloth ISBN: 978-0-8166-4964-8 ISBN-10: 0-8166-4964-2
Identifies the parallels between early modern and present-day conceptions of race. Like our own, early modern beliefs about race depended on metaphorical, selective, and contradictory understandings of how membership in groups is determined. Although race took distinctive forms in the past, the fallacies that underlie early modern racial experience generally are precisely—and surprisingly—the same as those in contemporary culture. Exploring the similar underpinnings of early modern and contemporary ideas of difference, Barbarous Play examines English Renaissance understandings of race as depicted in drama. Reading plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster, and Middleton, Bovilsky offers case studies of how racial meanings are generated by narratives of boundary crossing—especially miscegenation, religious conversion, class transgression, and moral and physical degeneracy. In the process, she reveals deep parallels between the period’s conceptions of race and gender. Barbarous Play contests the widely held view that race and racism depend on modern science for their existence and argues that understanding just what is false and figurative in past depictions of race, such as those found in Othello, The Merchant of Venice, The White Devil, and The Changeling, can clarify the illogic of present-day racism. “An extraordinarily rich and impressive book.” —Platforms “Barbarous Play is a rich and provocative work. I suspect and hope Bovilsky’s text will be pivotal in the field of race on the early modern stage.” —Renaissance Quarterly “This is a very timely book. One of the strengths of [Barbarous Play] is the range of research that has been carried out, and the critical analysis is of the highest order. It offers much in its detailed case studies and close investigations, and is certainly worth consideration.” —M/C Reviews “Insightful, nuanced and a persuasive contribution to ongoing debates about race. Bovilsky’s book is impressive in its clarity and focus. Each chapter is succinctly and cogently argued as well as engaging.” —Shakespeare Bulletin Lara Bovilsky is assistant professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. 208 pages \| 6 x 9 \| 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction: Race on the Renaissance Stage 1. Desdemona’s Blackness 2. Exemplary Jews and the Logic of Gentility 3. The English Italian 4. Race, Science, and Aversion Coda Notes Bibliography Index