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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help
The question is indeed meaningless. The concept of race was just beginning to be formulated around the time Shakespeare wrote. It really didn't begin to have any kind of real impact on people's minds in general until the concept was made "scientific" to justify slavery to those who needed to think of themselves as Christian in the 18th century. Slavery, alive and well in Shakespeare's day, was not a racialized concept. Even Aphra Behn who wrote 50 years after Shakespeare did not yet think of humanity as racialized, even though one of her works dealt specifically with the capturing of Africans and the selling of them into slavery in the West Indies.Posted by Kimball One on March 25, 1997 at 09:20:51
In Reply to "The question is meaningless." posted by Reality Chuck on March 25, 1997 at 05:09:58
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help