Sarkar, Debapriya. "The Arts of English Poesie: Making Worlds and Making Race." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/figurative-speech-and-racecraft. [Date accessed].
Figurative speech and racecraft
Understanding racializing processes in which language is key.
The Arts of English Poesie: Making Worlds and Making Race | Watch the full talk
Presented by Debapriya Sarkar at Poetics: A RaceB4Race Symposium in 2023
In this talk, Debapriya Sarkar explores the connections between English-language figurative speech and racecraft through an examination of George Puttenham’s The Arte of English Poesie (c. 1589). Situating Puttenham’s text within broader early modern conversations regarding rhetorical value in the English language, Sarkar brings out how English theories of figuration theorize language on a spectrum of mobility and fixity which in turn generate possibilities of “familiar” and “alien” meaning for specific words. This basic configuration, Sarkar argues, leads directly into racializing processes in which language is key. To demonstrate such processes, Sarkar turns to a close reading of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (c. 1607), focusing on the work being done in Shakespeare’s language to naturalize a link between the person of Cleopatra and the place of Egypt, showing us how the identification of a woman with an “alien” territory naturalizes the dehumanization of the racialized subject.
Further learning
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Shakespeare's language and status in the Western canon can feel inhospitable to many students, especially students of color. Teaching Henry V with a focus on linguistic identity, legitimacy, and belonging can open conversations that allow students to carve out a Shakespeare for themselves.
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