Selected annotated 
bibliography of PCRS

Examines the parallelism drawn between “Vikings” and “Saracens” in medieval English literature and visual arts. The essay argues that the figures of non-Christian Anglo-Saxons and “Saracens” operated in parallel fashion until the 14th century, at which point new consolidations of English identity rendered the comparison untenable. It engages discussions in the study of Christianity, conversion, and English literature.

Examines the connections between antiracism in medieval studies and the abolition of the prison-industrial complex. The essay argues that the study of medieval dance requires certain capacities to prison abolitionist work: “1) an ability to envision what we cannot know; 2) an understanding of how to act collectively even through our estrangement from each other (as medieval dancers did); 3) a willingness to take risks.”

Analyzes slavery in 16th and 17th century England against the widely held conception of early modern England as possessing a culture of voluntary service. The book focuses on the slippery “border between service and servitude” in order to parse the rhetorical techniques inflecting the lives of servants, captives, and others in early modern English contexts. The work engages conversations in the histories of labor, drama, and early modern England.

Study of anti-Blackness at work in early modern England. Drawing upon English dramas as evidence, the book argues that the early modern English placed Black Africans outside the scope of humanity as a key facet of constructing not only their own humanity, but that of non-Black “Others” as well. This book is likely to be of interest to students of English, Shakespeare studies, Black studies.

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Compendium of pedagogical resources to facilitate teaching on race in early modern European contexts, with a focus on the “Renaissance” era in England, France, Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, and the Americas. The volume brings together engagements with a variety of material including dramas, fairy tales, visual arts, poetry, and historical writing. The chapters consider a variety of fields including performance studies, art history, literature, and digital humanities.

Investigates theories of race in medieval English works. Through analysis of complex literary events, such as the battle between the knight Guy and the giant Colbrond in Guy of Warwick, the essay encapsulates the significance of “religion, descent, custom, law, language, monstrosity, geographical origin, and species” in addition to somatic markers in medieval English constructions of race. In addition, the essay provides a historiographical overview of contemporary thinking on race and medieval studies. Engages conversations in historiography, literature, embodiment, and religious studies.

A compendium of essays addressing multifaceted temporalities of the medieval and its possible resonances today, with particular attention to postcolonial hermeneutics of medieval materials. The essays range across themes such as Richard the Lionheart, statues of Dante and Joan of Arc in Malcolm X Park, Chaucer, Prester John, and others. The volume engages conversations in the fields of postcolonial theory, historiography, and temporality.

A compendium of essays reimagining European history between 1350 and 1550 through the experiences of "Black Africans, Asians, Jews, and Muslims." The essays explore the intersection of race with environment, religion, science, politics, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and more in a range of Renaissance and early modern European contexts.

An examination of constructing Jewish racial difference in Shakespeare's late 16th century play The Merchant of Venice. Coodin argues that the psychic and affective details placed onto a female Jewish character—namely, religious self-loathing and shame—are critical devices by which female Jews were racialized; and that these details were shown to be factors in Christian theorizations of conversion. The article engages conversations in the study of religion, Judaism, the history of emotion, and early modern Europe.

This article pairs the podcast Serial and Shakespeare’s Othello to illustrate how to discuss productively the fluidity of race in the early modern period and in contemporary society. Corredera suggests that recognizing the fluidity of racial categories can benefit current research and pedagogical methods. The essay pays particular attention to popular culture, social justice, religion, and the literary “canon.”

Investigates the question of Shakespeare’s universality through the lens of a 21^st-century comedic sketch by Key and Peele. Through a close reading of the sketch, Corredera demonstrates how Key and Peele both gesture towards the limits of Shakespearean universality and consider the representation of Black masculinity more broadly. This essay is of interest to students of Shakespeare, Blackness, and English literature.

Study of representations of Shakespeare’s Othello in the United States between 2008 and 2016. The book analyzes literary and audiovisual materials alongside performances to demonstrate how the new adaptations of the play accomplish both racist and antiracist ends. Of interest to students of English, Shakespeare studies, Black studies, and American history.

This article investigates Keith Hamilton Cobb’s interrogation of representations of Black identity in Shakespeare. Beginning with W.E.B. Du Bois, this text traces Black intellectual involvement with Shakespeare, suggesting that ambivalence allows Black artists to engage with Shakespeare and challenge white contemporary culture. The article covers issues such as casting, performance, and literary studies.

A study of the peripheralization of Islam and Muslims in the plays of Shakespeare, contrasted with the more evident presence of Islamic material in the works of Shakespeare’s contemporaries. The work argues that Shakespeare erases Islam to construct a fantasy of white, European, Christian dominance in the Mediterranean. Of interest to students of English, Shakespeare studies, and the study of the Mediterranean.

A study of how Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North constructs relationships to Shakespeare’s Othello. The article showcases the novel’s “oppositional appropriation” of Othello by sharply delineating the limitations of the play, forcing readers to attend to persons and places not engaged by Shakespeare. Of interest to students of English, postcolonial studies, Shakespeare studies, and Middle Eastern studies.

Investigates a spectrum of possible techniques regarding how to teach the early modern English plays of Shakespeare with an attention to racial formation. The work excavates relationships between past and present Anglophone discourses on race to argue for a need to embed such a consciousness about race within pedagogical praxes today. By doing so, this work sits at the intersection of early modern studies, Shakespeare studies, and the study of Anglophone literature more generally.

A critical lexicon of terminology used to configure racial difference in the context of early modern English. The entries provide historicizations of key concepts such as Alien, Moor, Citizen, Convert, Denizen, Exile, Foreigner, Heathen, Indian, Jew, Mahometan, Pagan, Savage, Turk, and Vagrant. The work thus participates in a broad range of fields including study of early modern England, cultural history, and the English language.

A collection of essays exploring the intersection of medievalism and postcolonialism. The work as a whole argues for the utility of the medieval/modern binary as a framing lens by which to deepen an understanding of postcolonial theory, as well as the various pertinences of postcolonial theory for understandings of “the medieval” situated outside Euro-American contexts. The essays consider sociohistorical sites in Africa, the Americas, East Asia, South Asia, and West Asia, and engage discussions in fields such as medieval history and postcolonial studies.

Considers the pedagogical uses of Shakespeare in an effort to foster habits of linguistic complexity and creativity in the contemporary classroom. De Barros argues for the ways in which educators might draw upon Shakespeare’s language both to work against existing habits of language and ground necessary political thought. Of interest to students of English, Shakespeare studies, and pedagogy.

Explores the representation of black skin in ancient Greek materials between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE. The book argues for a differentiation between the cultural attitudes of Greek antiquity and contemporary cultural overlays onto antique materials to execute an anti-racist historiography binding classical contexts to contemporary receptions. The work engages conversations in performance studies, material culture, and Blackness.