Introduction: “Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective” by Mary Floyd-Wilson
“Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective” by Mary Floyd-Wilson first appeared in Literature Compass in 2006. This article examines the evolution of race studies in early modern English literature, emphasizing its shift from a marginal subject to a crucial field in literary analysis. Floyd-Wilson highlights how earlier scholarship, such as Winthrop Jordan’s White Over Black (1968) and G.K. Hunter’s Othello and Colour Prejudice (1967), framed Renaissance racial discourse through typological interpretations, viewing blackness primarily as a symbol of sin and moral depravity. However, she critiques these perspectives for their oversimplified assumptions about Elizabethan xenophobia and the supposed instinctual aversion to blackness. The article also discusses how feminist scholarship in the late 1980s, particularly works by Karen Newman and Ania Loomba, integrated race and gender, revealing how the construction of racial identity in early modern England was deeply intertwined with class and patriarchy. Moreover, Floyd-Wilson underscores the necessity of examining race through interdisciplinary lenses, including religion, geography, and trade relations. She references scholars like Kim F. Hall, who demonstrated how the language of Renaissance literature played a crucial role in formulating racial and national identities, and Nabil Matar, whose studies on early English encounters with Islam challenge Eurocentric narratives of racial difference. Floyd-Wilson’s retrospective thus positions race studies as an indispensable framework for understanding English Renaissance literature, moving beyond simplistic racial binaries to explore the complexities of identity formation in the period.
Summary of “Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective” by Mary Floyd-Wilson
- Development of Race Studies in Early Modern Literature
- Over the last thirty years, race studies in Renaissance literature have evolved from a marginalized field to a central topic of scholarly inquiry (Floyd-Wilson 1044).
- Early studies largely employed typological interpretations of blackness, viewing black figures in literature as symbolic representations of sin and moral degradation (1044).
- The field has expanded beyond narrow frameworks to include perspectives from disciplines like science, geography, religion, and trade relations (1044).
- The Curse of Ham and Typological Interpretations of Blackness
- The late 1960s marked an important period with foundational texts such as Winthrop D. Jordan’s White Over Black (1968) and G.K. Hunter’s Othello and Colour Prejudice (1967) (1044).
- Hunter argued that Othello’s blackness was primarily a theatrical and typological device rather than an accurate reflection of Elizabethan encounters with Moors (1044).
- Jordan posited that English racial attitudes predated the Atlantic slave trade, reinforcing a notion that white reactions to blackness were instinctive (1045).
- Scholars such as Alden and Virginia Mason Vaughan have since critiqued Jordan’s claims, pointing out that English racial perceptions were shaped by sudden exposure to blackness rather than an inherent aversion (1045).
- Intersection of Race, Gender, and Class
- Feminist scholarship in the late 1980s transformed Renaissance racial studies, examining racial identity alongside gender and class (1046).
- Karen Newman argued that Desdemona and Othello were constructed through discourses on femininity and blackness that reinforced early modern ideas of racial and gendered difference (1046).
- Ania Loomba’s Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama (1989) highlighted the interconnectedness of racial and gendered othering within white patriarchal society (1046).
- Lynda Boose’s work demonstrated that black women were largely unrepresentable in English Renaissance literature, as their existence challenged dominant patriarchal narratives (1046).
- Religious Identity and the Concept of Race
- Race in early modern England was often understood through religious frameworks, with blackness associated with non-Christian identities (1047).
- James Shapiro’s Shakespeare and the Jews (1997) demonstrated how English identity formation was shaped by anxieties about religious difference (1047).
- Daniel Vitkus’s work on Othello emphasized that English fears of conversion and conquest by Islamic forces influenced racial portrayals of Moors (1047).
- Nabil Matar’s Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery (1999) provided archival evidence that English interactions with Muslim cultures were more extensive than previously thought, complicating simplistic racial binaries (1047).
- Geography, Science, and Racial Construction
- Recent scholarship has turned to pre-colonial concepts of race and geography to challenge teleological readings of race and imperialism (1048).
- Emily Bartels argued that Europeans constructed Africa as both a space of exoticism and familiarity, rather than simply an “Other” (1048).
- Valerie Traub suggested that early modern maps and geographical treatises contributed to racial and cultural differentiation (1048).
- Floyd-Wilson’s own work in English Ethnicity and Race in Early Modern Drama (2003) explores how geohumoral theories shaped English perceptions of blackness and whiteness (1048).
- Conclusion and Future Directions
- The study of race in Renaissance literature has moved from a minor subtopic to a major interdisciplinary field (1049).
- Future research is expected to further explore the intersections of race and religion, race and science, and transatlantic racial economies (1049).
- Floyd-Wilson emphasizes that historicizing race requires both archival rigor and critical engagement with inherited myths (1049).
Theoretical Terms/Concepts in “Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective” by Mary Floyd-Wilson
| Theoretical Term/Concept | Definition/Explanation | Reference from the Article |
| Typological Interpretations of Blackness | The belief that blackness in Renaissance literature functioned symbolically rather than reflecting real interactions with Black people. | “Othello is purposively black for theatrical and typological ends” (1044). |
| The Curse of Ham | A biblical justification for racial inferiority, arguing that blackness was a divine curse. | “Jordan attributes the ‘extraordinary persistence’ of the Curse of Ham legend to the probable ‘feeling’ among Europeans that ‘blackness could scarcely be anything but a curse'” (1045). |
| Phenotypical Differences | Physical racial characteristics and their cultural interpretations. | “Scholars aim to discover how early modern responses to phenotypical differences relate to the eventual construction of race” (1044). |
| Racial Performativity | The ways race was performed on stage and interpreted by audiences in early modern England. | “Othello was a white man’—a fact that underscores the ‘exclusionary privilege’ of whiteness in all early modern English stagings of blackness” (1045). |
| Ethnocentricity of English Petrarchism | The preference for fair-skinned beauty ideals in Renaissance poetry and art. | “Jordan also suggestively identifies the ethnocentricity of English Petrarchism” (1045). |
| Origins Debate | The discussion on whether racism led to slavery or slavery produced racism. | “Engaged in the ‘origins debate’ of American scholarship, which queried whether racism begat slavery, or slavery produced racism” (1045). |
| Intersectionality | The analysis of race in relation to other identity markers like gender and class. | “Renaissance racial studies changed significantly with the entrance of feminism in the late 80s” (1046). |
| Exclusionary Privilege of Whiteness | The systemic centering of whiteness in literary and cultural representation. | “Othello was a white man’—a fact that underscores the ‘exclusionary privilege’ of whiteness” (1045). |
| Religious Othering | The racialization of religious identity, particularly regarding Islam and Judaism. | “English identity, religion, and emergent racial categories were intertwined” (1047). |
| Geohumoralism | The belief that climate and geography influenced racial and ethnic characteristics. | “Humoralism, I argue, functioned as ethnology for the English” (1048). |
| Racial Teleology | The tendency to project modern racial categories backward onto early modern texts. | “Most scholarship continues to view early modern racialism through a narrative of conquest” (1048). |
| Cultural Taxonomy | The classification of people based on perceived racial, religious, or geographic differences. | “The complexity of tracing what’s familiar and what’s peculiar about premodern taxonomies” (1044). |
| Transatlantic Racial Economies | The study of how race was constructed within early economic and colonial exchanges. | “More exciting work soon, particularly on the interrelations between race and religion, race and science, and on race within a transatlantic economy” (1049). |
Contribution of “Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective” by Mary Floyd-Wilson to Literary Theory/Theories
1. Critical Race Theory (CRT)
- Floyd-Wilson explores how race is a social construct rather than a biological reality, aligning with the fundamental premise of CRT that race is historically contingent and shaped by power structures.
- She challenges earlier scholarship that assumed Elizabethan racial attitudes were natural or instinctual, instead emphasizing how race was produced through discourse (1044-1045).
- Example: She critiques Winthrop Jordan’s claim that “white responses to blackness may be instinctual or atavistic,” arguing that this assumption essentializes racial prejudice and ignores historical complexity (1045).
- The article examines early English constructions of racial and cultural difference before the rise of colonialism, reinforcing postcolonial scholars’ interest in how race was formed in pre-imperial contexts.
- Floyd-Wilson highlights how early modern racial discourse was shaped by religion, geography, and trade, rather than colonial conquest alone (1047-1048).
- Example: She draws on Nabil Matar’s research, which reveals that English portrayals of Moors were influenced by their encounters with Muslims and Native Americans, complicating Eurocentric narratives of race (1047).
- She also critiques Emily Bartels’ argument that early racial representations should not always be read through a colonial lens, emphasizing the fluidity of pre-colonial racial categories (1048).
3. Feminist Theory & Intersectionality
- The article contributes to feminist literary criticism by demonstrating how race and gender were mutually constructed in early modern England (1046).
- Example: She references Karen Newman’s reading of Othello to argue that “Desdemona and Othello, woman and black man, are represented by discourses about femininity and blackness which managed and produced difference” (1046).
- Floyd-Wilson also acknowledges Ania Loomba’s work, which was among the first to analyze how gender, race, and class intersected in Renaissance drama, reinforcing an intersectional approach (1046).
4. Performance and Cultural Studies
- The article engages with Performance Theory by analyzing how race was performed on the Renaissance stage, rather than being an intrinsic identity.
- Example: Floyd-Wilson highlights Dympna Callaghan’s argument that Othello was played by a white actor in blackface, reinforcing the exclusionary privilege of whiteness in early modern theater (1045).
- She also references Virginia Mason Vaughan’s work on Performing Blackness, which investigates how white audiences “read” racialized characters on stage (1045).
5. Historicism & New Historicism
- Floyd-Wilson situates racial discourse within historical and archival contexts, emphasizing that race in Renaissance literature cannot be understood outside its cultural, religious, and economic background.
- Example: She argues that scholars must avoid imposing “an American history of race relations onto pre-slavery English origins” (1046), advocating for a historically specific reading of race.
- Her engagement with New Historicism is evident in her focus on primary texts, archival sources, and cultural artifacts, such as travel narratives and religious writings (1047-1048).
6. Geohumoralism and Environmental Determinism
- The article contributes to early modern ethnology by revisiting the role of geohumoralism (the belief that climate shaped racial and ethnic traits).
- Example: Floyd-Wilson notes that Renaissance English texts often described blackness as associated with wisdom and spirituality, while whiteness was linked to barbarism and mutability (1048).
- This analysis challenges modern assumptions about racial hierarchy by retrieving pre-Enlightenment models of difference (1048).
7. Religious Studies and Race
- Floyd-Wilson highlights how racial identity in early modern England was deeply tied to religious affiliation, contributing to the study of theology and race in literature.
- Example: She discusses Daniel Vitkus’s argument that early English fears of Moors were framed within anxieties about Islam and Christian conversion, rather than purely racial concerns (1047).
- Similarly, she cites Ania Loomba, who argues that skin color and religious identity were intertwined in early English debates about community and belonging (1047).
8. Economic Criticism and Transatlantic Studies
- The article anticipates further scholarship on how race was shaped by early transatlantic trade and economic networks.
- Example: She suggests that “future work should examine race within a transatlantic economy” (1049), signaling a shift toward economic and materialist interpretations of race.
Examples of Critiques Through “Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective” by Mary Floyd-Wilson
| Literary Work | Critique Through Floyd-Wilson’s Analysis | Reference from the Article |
| Othello (William Shakespeare) | – Floyd-Wilson critiques early interpretations of Othello’s blackness as merely a typological symbol of sin and death. – She engages with Karen Newman’s feminist reading, which argues that Desdemona and Othello are represented through discourses of femininity and blackness that reinforce racial and gender hierarchies (1046). – She also references Dympna Callaghan’s argument that Othello was historically played by a white man in blackface, highlighting how race was performed rather than embodied (1045). – Daniel Vitkus’s work on “Turning Turk” suggests that Othello’s racial identity is linked to religious conversion anxieties, rather than just skin color (1047). | – “Othello is purposively black for theatrical and typological ends” (1044). – “Desdemona and Othello, woman and black man, are represented by discourses about femininity and blackness” (1046). – “Othello was a white man” (1045). – “The play’s portrait of the Moor is framed by the widespread European fear of being conquered and captured by Turks” (1047). |
| Titus Andronicus (William Shakespeare) | – Floyd-Wilson argues that early modern English literature associated blackness with negative traits such as cruelty, barbarism, and lasciviousness, as seen in Aaron the Moor’s portrayal in Titus Andronicus (1044-1045). – She highlights Winthrop Jordan’s claim that early English audiences instinctively responded negatively to blackness, though this view has been critiqued as overly deterministic (1045). – The play demonstrates how race was framed not only through skin color but also through religious and cultural associations, a theme that aligns with her discussion on racial typologies and geohumoralism (1048). | – “Anyone who reads Othello or Titus Andronicus will recognize that early modern English culture identified black skin with a set of negative qualities” (1044). – “Blackness seemed to produce a powerful and instinctively negative response in white observers” (1045). – “Geohumoral conceptual frameworks associated blackness with wisdom, spirituality, and resolution, and whiteness with barbarism, mutability, and slow-wittedness” (1048). |
| The Merchant of Venice (William Shakespeare) | – Floyd-Wilson connects The Merchant of Venice to James Shapiro’s Shakespeare and the Jews, arguing that racial identity in the play is tied to religious othering rather than skin color alone (1047). – She references Ania Loomba’s work on Shakespeare, Race, and Colonialism, which suggests that racial anxieties in early modern England were closely linked to fears of conversion and assimilation (1047). – Elizabeth Spiller’s essay suggests that race and romance intersect in Shakespeare’s work, where Shylock’s Jewish identity is framed through cultural and economic exclusion (1048). | – “Religious concepts of community were challenged most powerfully by differences in skin colour, sparking off intense debates about religious identity as well as blackness” (1047). – “Shapiro’s Shakespeare and the Jews provides an important methodological model for thinking about the complex ways in which English identity, religion, and emergent racial categories were intertwined” (1047). – “Elizabeth Spiller’s essay… provocatively outlines how race and romance intersect in The Merchant of Venice” (1048). |
| Tamburlaine (Christopher Marlowe) | – Floyd-Wilson applies geohumoralism to Tamburlaine, arguing that early modern English audiences understood race through climate-based theories rather than rigid racial categories (1048). – She critiques earlier scholarship that saw Tamburlaine as either a racialized “Other” or a heroic conqueror, arguing that his portrayal is shaped by both cultural admiration and racial anxiety (1048). – She also highlights how early modern English drama often associated “Moorishness” with both religious and geographical alterity, rather than simply skin color (1047). | – “The English geographic imagination located England on the margins of the classical world – a marginalization that affected their conception of physiological and emotional differences” (1048). – “Moorish identities could confusingly be understood through religious, cultural, and racial categories that sometimes clashed” (1047). – “Humoralism functioned as ethnology for the English” (1048). |
Criticism Against “Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective” by Mary Floyd-Wilson
1. Overemphasis on Shakespearean Studies
- The article centers Shakespearean drama, particularly Othello, Titus Andronicus, and The Merchant of Venice, at the core of race studies while neglecting other Renaissance literary forms.
- Critics might argue that her focus reinforces the canonization of Shakespeare, overlooking important non-dramatic texts, such as early modern poetry, pamphlets, and travel narratives.
- She briefly acknowledges “the wonderful scholarship on the New Atlantic World, the matter of Britain, and Spanish imperialism” but does not explore these areas in depth (1049).
2. Lack of Engagement with Non-European Perspectives
- Floyd-Wilson primarily analyzes how English writers constructed racial identity but does not significantly engage with African, Middle Eastern, or indigenous perspectives on racial identity.
- Some critics argue that race studies should incorporate decolonial approaches by focusing on how Moors, Africans, and Muslims represented themselves, rather than how they were framed by European texts.
- Scholars like Nabil Matar have worked to recover Muslim voices in early modern encounters, but Floyd-Wilson does not fully integrate these alternative viewpoints into her analysis (1047).
3. Limited Critique of Early Race Theories
- While Floyd-Wilson critiques Winthrop Jordan’s White Over Black (1968) for assuming that white reactions to blackness were instinctual, she does not fully deconstruct the methodological flaws in early racial scholarship (1045).
- Critics might argue that she relies on summaries rather than offering a deep theoretical engagement with early race theorists.
- For example, while she acknowledges Benjamin Braude’s critique of Jordan’s work as “anachronistic” (1045), she does not expand on how modern race studies have moved beyond Jordan’s framework.
4. Insufficient Attention to Economic and Colonial Frameworks
- The article mentions transatlantic racial economies only briefly in its conclusion, despite the significant role of trade, colonialism, and capitalism in shaping early racial ideologies (1049).
- Scholars working in materialist and economic criticism (such as Kim F. Hall’s Things of Darkness) have argued that racial identity in early modern England was deeply tied to emerging capitalist structures, but Floyd-Wilson does not focus on this aspect.
- She acknowledges the importance of “race within a transatlantic economy” as a future area of study but does not explore the economic dimensions of race in detail (1049).
5. Theoretical Overlap Without Original Contribution
- Some critics might argue that Floyd-Wilson’s article is more of a survey of existing race studies rather than offering a groundbreaking theoretical intervention.
- While she synthesizes major scholars like Ania Loomba, Karen Newman, and Nabil Matar, she does not propose a new theoretical framework or methodology for race studies in Renaissance literature.
- The retrospective approach is valuable, but some might see it as reiterating established debates rather than advancing new arguments.
6. Limited Discussion of Performance Studies Beyond Blackface
- While Floyd-Wilson references Virginia Mason Vaughan’s work on blackface performance, she does not fully engage with broader issues of racial performativity in early modern theater (1045).
- Scholars such as Ian Smith have explored the racialization of stage movements, speech patterns, and costuming, which Floyd-Wilson does not analyze in depth.
- Her discussion of “Othello as a white man in blackface” (1045) is useful, but her argument could be extended by considering how performance reinforced or disrupted racial hierarchies.
Representative Quotations from “Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective” by Mary Floyd-Wilson with Explanation
| Quotation | Explanation |
| “In thirty years the study of race in early modern literature has moved from the margins of scholarship to occupy its now central role in the analysis of English Renaissance culture.” (1044) | Floyd-Wilson highlights the academic shift in literary studies, where race has become a central focus rather than a peripheral topic. This reflects the broader impact of critical race theory and postcolonial studies on early modern literature. |
| “Anyone who reads Othello or Titus Andronicus will recognize that early modern English culture identified black skin with a set of negative qualities.” (1044) | This statement underscores how racial stereotypes were embedded in Renaissance literature, portraying blackness as synonymous with moral and social inferiority. It aligns with typological interpretations of race. |
| “Race, as it surfaces in Shakespeare’s and other early modern texts, reveals itself to be a multiplicity of loci, of axes of determinism, as well as of metaphorical systems to aid and abet its deployment across a variety of boundaries in the making.” (1044) | Quoting Margo Hendricks, Floyd-Wilson suggests that race in early modern texts is fluid and constructed through multiple intersecting factors, including gender, religion, and geography. This aligns with intersectionality theory in literary studies. |
| “Winthrop Jordan also maintained that the interaction between the English and Africans had been limited.” (1045) | Floyd-Wilson critiques Jordan’s argument that racial prejudice in early modern England was instinctual rather than socially constructed. She emphasizes the need for historical specificity rather than assuming universal racial attitudes. |
| “Scholars began to consider race as a category of difference analogous to class, nationality, but most especially gender.” (1046) | This reflects the influence of feminist and intersectional theory, which considers how race operates alongside gender and class in shaping identity and exclusion in Renaissance texts. |
| “Religious concepts of community were challenged most powerfully by differences in skin colour, sparking off intense debates about religious identity as well as blackness.” (1047) | Floyd-Wilson discusses how race was linked to religious othering, particularly in early modern England’s encounters with Islam and Judaism. This ties into the study of race and religion in early modern texts. |
| “The English geographic imagination located England on the margins of the classical world – a marginalization that affected their conception of physiological and emotional differences.” (1048) | This statement highlights geohumoralism, the early modern belief that climate and geography shaped racial and ethnic traits. It shows how England saw itself in relation to Mediterranean and African identities. |
| “The complexity of tracing what’s familiar and what’s peculiar about premodern taxonomies and their cultural functions has intrigued critics for several generations.” (1044) | Floyd-Wilson acknowledges the challenges of historicizing race, emphasizing that racial categories in the Renaissance were different from modern racial ideologies. |
| “Othello was a white man” – a fact that underscores the ‘exclusionary privilege’ of whiteness in all early modern English stagings of blackness.” (1045) | This quotation from Dympna Callaghan highlights racial performativity in early modern theater, where white actors in blackface reinforced dominant racial hierarchies. |
| “Historicizing race depends, of course, on solid archival research, but as astute readers of fiction and culture, literary scholars have interpreted and dismantled inherited myths.” (1049) | Floyd-Wilson affirms that race studies must combine historical research with literary interpretation, dismantling racial myths and assumptions in Renaissance literature. |
Suggested Readings: “Moors, Race, and the Study of English Renaissance Literature: A Brief Retrospective” by Mary Floyd-Wilson
- Floyd‐Wilson, Mary. “Moors, race, and the study of English renaissance literature: A brief retrospective.” Literature Compass 3.5 (2006): 1044-1052.
- BRITTON, DENNIS AUSTIN. “Recent Studies in English Renaissance Literature.” English Literary Renaissance, vol. 45, no. 3, 2015, pp. 459–78. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48634687. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
- STANIVUKOVIC, GORAN V. “RECENT STUDIES OF ENGLISH RENAISSANCE LITERATURE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.” English Literary Renaissance, vol. 32, no. 1, 2002, pp. 168–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24463713. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
- Smith, Emma. “Race and Othello.” Othello, Liverpool University Press, 2005, pp. 28–48. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv5qdgmv.8. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
- Mason, Philip. “Othello and Race Prejudice.” Caribbean Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 3, 1962, pp. 154–62. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40652820. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.