Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective

Abstract

In thirty years the study of race in early modern literature has moved from the margins of scholarship to occupy its now central role in the analysis of English Renaissance culture. Narrow typological interpretations of blackness dominated Renaissance racial studies in the past. Feminist criticism in the late 80s opened up the field in its examination of how gender and class inform constructions of racial differences – both black and white. In the past fifteen years, scholars have recognized the necessity of tracing the emergence of racial differences in a wider range of disciplines and contexts, including scientific discourse, geography, religious identity, and trade relations.