Select annotated bibliography entry
Chakravarty, Urvashi. “Race, Natality, and the Biopolitics of Early Modern Political Theology.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 18, no. 2 (2018): 140–166.
Examining England in the 16th and 17th centuries, this article analyzes the concept of natality in three Shakespearean dramas (Titus Andronicus, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello) to identify racial formations within early modern political theology. Chakravarty articulates a prehistory of slavery by arguing that birth, bloodline, and bodily difference function as biopolitical mechanisms that racialize populations and reshape sovereignty.
