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‘Nothing-to-be-glossed-here’: Race in Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2024

Hannah Crawforth
Affiliation:
King's College London
Elizabeth Scott-Baumann
Affiliation:
King's College London
Emma Smith
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

This essay argues for the replacement of that nineteenth-century euphemism, ‘Dark Lady’, with a Black Mistress. The more we examine the language that creates this figure, the more the so-called Fair Youth and even the speaker of the Sonnets become less ‘fair’, thereby exposing the instability of Whiteness. This essay will also examine some of the reasons for our racial blindspots when it comes to the Sonnets.

Type
Chapter
Information
Shakespeare Survey 77
Shakespeare's Poetry
, pp. 62 - 78
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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