ENG214

This course examines the historical, ideological, and discursive construction of race in early modern England. Through the lens of Shakespearean drama, we will also trace, interrogate, and consider the ways that our contemporary world has inherited and perpetuated such constructions. At stake in examining this relationship between our moment and Shakespeare’s moment, then, is the possibility that understanding the early formations of violent, racist ideologies and systems of thought (including anti-Blackness, antisemitism, white supremacy, and settler-colonialism), as well as ruptures in and resistances to such logics, may help us do the work of dismantling them in our own time and furthering the cause of anti-racist scholarship, pedagogy, and being. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course.