Things of Darkness

The "Ethiope," the "tawny Tartar," the "woman blackamoore," and "knotty Africanisms"--Allusions to blackness abound in Renaissance texts. Kim F. Hall's book is the first to view these evocations of blackness in the contexts of sexual politics, imperialism, and slavery in early modern England. Her work reveals the vital link between England's expansion into realms of difference and otherness - through exploration and colonialism - and the highly charged ideas of race and gender which emerged. Concentrating on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Hall shows how race, sexuality, economics, and nationalism contributed to the formation of a modern (white, male) identity in English culture. The volume includes a useful appendix of not readily accessible Renaissance poems on blackness.