Britton, Dennis. "Race in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/race-in-spensers-the-faerie-queene. [Date accessed].
Race in Spenser’s The Faerie Queene
How allegory becomes a tool of racialization in The Faerie Queene.
Those who insist on reading Spenser's The Faerie Queene as only an anti-Catholic allegory are missing a crucial truth: the epic genre had already made Muslims apt figures for his allegory, and his allegory only helps further racialize Muslims. Race and allegory work similarly—they both require that bodies become abstractions, and that bodies and their features become signifiers of virtues or vices. While the genre of epic has significantly defined what Muslims are in the white European imagination, Spenser’s allegory actually helps make racist tropes “stick” to Muslim bodies.
Further learning
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Spenser and his racializing influences
Comparing episodes from The Faerie Queene with episodes from the works that inspired Spenser, in particular excerpts from Ariosto’s and Tasso’s works, is a productive way to draw attention to how racialization travels and mutates across national traditions.
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Chaucer adaptations in the classroom
Modern adaptations can transform the way students read Chaucer. These classroom activities pair The Canterbury Tales with contemporary poetry, performance, and translation to help students explore how race, language, identity, and belonging shape both medieval texts and their modern reinterpretations.
