Gender, Race, Renaissance Drama

by Ania Loomba

Published 13 February 1989
Violent and recurrent confrontations between disorderly women and patriarchal power are a major feature of the tragedies of Shakespeare, Webster and Middleton. This study interrelates racial and sexual differences to explore the construction of Renaissance authority and the politics of English studies, particularly Renaissance drama, in post-colonial education. The recurrent confrontations between the disorderly women and the patriarchal status quo are discussed in the light of the historical and theoretical interweaving of race and gender. Ania Loomba further juxtaposes these with the conditions of the plays' reception in the contemporary classroom to examine the dynamic and fluid contact between the Western literary canon and the black intellectual.