3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

The stratified nature of medieval and early modern Iberia was long understood to derive not from race per se but from lineage, whereby statutes of limpieza de sangre or blood purity granted an array of privileges to descendants of Christian ancestors while discriminating against those of Jewish or Muslim heritage. Recent scholarship, however, has challenged this paradigm to establish that race was already operative in premodernity, and that skin color was, alongside ethnoreligious genealogy, yet another vector of oppression. This course will explore the racialization of skin complexion in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Iberian drama, particularly in plays featuring Black African and Afro-diasporic characters, such as those by Andrés de Claramonte, Diego Jiménez de Enciso, Lope de Rueda, Lope de Vega, Antonio Mira de Amescua, Rodrigo de Reinosa, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Luis Vélez de Guevara. In doing so, students will engage with the field of premodern critical race studies to interrogate how a nascent colorism intersected with historical projects of national and imperial consolidation, global trade, colonialism, slavery, and other racial formations. Many of the readings will be available only in Spanish, though class discussion may be conducted in Spanish or English, depending on the needs of enrolled students.