Racism and Early Blackface Comic Traditions (eBook)

Robert Hornback is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Oglethorpe University, USA. He teaches Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Contemporaries, Medieval & Renaissance Literature, Ancient Literature, and Comedy: Ancient to Renaissance. He is the author of The English Clown Tradition from the Middle Ages to Shakespeare (2009) and has published widely on fools and comedy.

1.Introduction: Recovering the Contexts of Early Modern Proto-Racism.2. Harlequin as Theatergram: Transmitting the Time-Worn Black Mask, Ancient to Antebellum.3. Beyond Good and Evil Symbolism: Allegories and Metaphysics of Blackfaced Folly.4. From Allegorical Type and Sartorial Satire to Minstrel Dandy Stereotype and Blackface-on-Black Violence.5. Sambo Dialects: Defining National Language Boundaries via Early Representations of Stereotypically Black Speech.6. Blackface in Shakespeare: Challenging Racial Allegories of Folly and Speech.7. Shakespeare in Blackface: Black Shakespeareans vs. Minstrel Burlesques, 1821-1844.8. A New Theory of Pre-Modern or Proto-Racism.9. White Nationalism, Trolling Humor as Propaganda, and the “Renaissance” of Christian Racism in the Age of Trump.