Renaissance Ideas of Blackness

When I started a Renaissance Literature class this semester, I didn’t expect the luxury of viewing it (or having it presented to me) from a black woman’s perspective. After all, we are talking about Shakespeare, Lady Mary Wroth and George Herbert, right? Well, Kim Hall’s book Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England is a fascinating and thorough examination of the black/white dichotomy in seventeenth century British society, in particular, its literature and art. If you’ve ever wondered about the issues of race and gender during this time in history but didn’t know where to read about it, this is an excellent place to start.