Hall, Kim F. "Witnessing whiteness in the early modern world." Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/witnessing-whiteness-in-the-early-modern-world. [Date accessed].

Witnessing whiteness in the early modern world

Encouraging students to see the work of whiteness so as to make the racism behind these ideas visible too.

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Kim F. Hall
Barnard College

Whiteness is not an empty or invisible signifier, and it is something we should be discussing when we talk about race in our classrooms. When we consider the role of Christianity in constructing views of whiteness as pure and good, we can see how racial hierarchies begin to take shape in the early modern period. This plays out in the portraiture of early modern England, and attending to this in our teaching allows us to broach important conversations about race, and whiteness in particular, in literary works like The Tragedy of Mariam, Othello, and Oroonoko.  

Kim F. Hall explores the value and importance of discussing the role of whiteness not only within early modern literature and culture, but within her classroom as well.  

Further learning

Activity

One word essay

This assignment in Kim F. Hall's Shakespeare courses asks students to analyze a single word in early modern texts using a variety of primary sources.

Kim F. Hall
Activity

The unessay

Kim F. Hall assigns the unessay to have students tackle an intellectual knot outside the constraints of the usual college essay.

Kim F. Hall
Syllabus

Revising the Shakespeare survey

Ruben Espinosa's annotated syllabus offers entry points to broaching conversations about race and racism within a course that isn’t necessarily devoted to Shakespeare and critical race studies.

Ruben Espinosa

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