 | Barbarous Play: Race on the English Renaissance Stage Subjects: Race in literature; English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan 1500–1600 -- History and criticism; English drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism; Theater -- England -- History -- 16th century; Theater -- England -- History -- 17th century; Ra; Barbarous Play examines English Renaissance understandings of race as depicted in drama. Reading plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster, and Middleton, Lara Bovilsky offers case studies of how racial meanings are generated by narratives of boundary crossingOCoespecially miscegenation, religious conversion, and class transgression. In the process, she argues that understanding just what is false and figurative in past depictions of race can clarify the illogic of present-day racism. |
