Welcome to episode 30 of Ripe Good Scholar: Darkness Representing Evil
In this episode…
We are looking at the evolution of race from the Middle Ages to Shakespeare’s time. The discussion is more complicated than we might think. This period of time was when the concept of race as we know it today was being forged. Renaissance Europe was experiencing a huge step forward in globalization. This period was the beginning of colonization and the slave trade. There was also a LOT of trade happening. This meant that what was an exotic other was suddenly very close to home. The people of Renaissance Europe had to figure out what this meant for them and how to interact with these new darker skinned people. Unfortunately, it wasn’t usually pleasant, but that is what colored Shakespeare’s writing as he introduced characters of color. That is what we are going to be exploring today.
For this episode, I read a selection from the Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race, along with a number of articles you will find linked in the show notes.
Full show notes available at ripegoodscholar.com/ep30
Teller of Tales by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4467-teller-of-the-tales
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Minstrel Guild by KevinMacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4056-minstrel-guild
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Shakespeare Apocrypha
George Peele and Titus Andronicus
The Sources for Twelfth Night
Eleanor Cobham Witch Trial
Witches - Halloween Special
Venus, Adonis, and Ovid
A Groatsworth of Wit
Shakespeare in Colonial America
Leontes’ Paranoia
City Comedies
Folklore Cymbeline
The Analyzing of a Shrew
Restoration Rewrites
The Norse Origins of Hamlet
King Lear’s Need to Be Loved
The Creation of Shakespeare’s First Folio
Queen Elizabeth and the Fairy Court
Jewish People in Elizabethan England
Romeo & Juliet Source Material
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