English Ethnicity and Race in Early Modern Drama

InEnglishEthnicityandRaceinEarlyModernDrama,MaryFloyd-Wilsonoutlineswhatwemightcall'scientific'conceptionsofracialandethnicdifferencesinsixteenth-andseventeenth-centuryEnglishwriting.Drawingonclassicalandcontemporarymedicaltexts,historiesandcosmographies,Floyd-WilsondemonstratesthatRenaissanceunderstandingsofracialandethnicidentitiescontradictedmanymodernstereotypesconcerningdifference.Southerners,Africans,inparticular,wereidentifiedasdispassionate,cool-temperedandwise,whereasthemorenorthernEnglishwereunderstoodtobeunruly,impressionableandslow-witted.Concernedwiththeunflatteringandconstrainingimplicationsofthisclassicallyderivedknowledge,Englishwriterslabouredtoreinventethnologytotheirownadvantage-alabourthatpavedthewayfortheinventionofmorefamiliarracialideas.Floyd-WilsonhighlightstheseEnglishrevisionaryeffortsinhersurprisingandtransformationalreadingsoftheperiod'sdrama,includingMarlowe'sTamburlaine,Jonson'sTheMasqueofBlacknessandShakespeare'sOthelloandCymbeline.