Issues of Race and Colonial Difference were Central to the Culture of the Early Modern Period 💜

“Race and Colonialism in the Study of Shakespeare”

by Ania Loomba | A Critical Summary

Introduction

This essay titled, “Race and Colonialism in the Study of Shakespeare” is taken from Ania Loomba’s book titled, Shakespeare, Race and Colonialism, published in the year 2002.  Ania Loomba is an Indian literary scholar and a Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, US.

This essay serves as an introduction towards examining the conveniently overlooked, relationship between race, colonialism, and the works of William Shakespeare. Ania Loomba argues that issues of race and colonial difference were central to the culture of the early modern period, even though they were frequently neglected in the traditional study of the Renaissance.

The Early Modern Period: Marks the beginning of England’s Imperial Ambitions

The most critical argument that Loomba puts forth is the assertion that “race” was profoundly relevant in the early modern period, even if the vocabulary and precise meanings differed from today. To Loomba, the early modern period marks the beginning of England’s imperial ambitions.

The encounter with non-Europeans, both at home and abroad, was essential to the formation of English national identity and colonial enterprises. Race was hence intertwined with other axes of identity, including –

Religion (differentiation based on faith, such as against Jews, Muslims (Turks or Moors),

Colour and Geography (differentiation based on skin colour, often tied to climate, Eg:  geohumoralism – or Geohumoral theory – a Renaissance-era concept, that linked a person’s physical and psychological nature to the geography and climate of their region.

Nationality, Class, and Gender (differentiation based on social class (e.g., “blue blood” of the nobility) and gender roles often provided the language for expressing and developing ideas about racial difference and hierarchy.

Race as an Analytical Lens

Since race formed part of a crucial analytic lens of the early modern period, Loomba reveals that the preoccupation with “outsiders” (like Othello, Shylock, or Caliban) and the anxieties about cultural and religious boundaries were central to the drama and culture of the time.

In essence, Loomba emphasizes race because she sees the early modern period as a crucial moment of formation where the seeds of modern racial ideologies were being sown, deeply connected to England’s evolving sense of self and its first steps toward global domination.

Race and ‘Formation’ of the Nation

The essay outlines a strong, aggressive connection between imperial ambition and the development of European nations.

Drawing on theorists like Edward Said, Loomba shows how “Englishness” and European identity were defined by establishing what lay outside. The construction of an “Orient” as irrational and backward, or the negation of “Irishness” as incivility, helped Europe define itself as the superior civilization, whereby, the colonisers defined themselves through the concept of the Other.

Moreover, overseas expansion and colonial ambitions are presented as the “midwives” that assisted in the development of European nations and what is now called modernity. 

In this regard, the Theatre of the Early Modern Period, (especially Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre) played a very powerful role, as a medium, in shaping public opinion, as most English people got their images of foreign people from the stage. The plays, therefore, deeply shaped English imagining of outsiders.

The Critical Lens on Shakespeare’s Plays

Ania Loomba justifies the study of Shakespeare by showing how his plays reflect, shape, and encode the complex and often contradictory ideas of the past and present. Particularly his Othello and The Tempest, have served as an “extraordinarily powerful medium” for transmitting and shaping ideas about colonialism and race across generations and cultures.

Vocabularies of Race

Shakespeare’s plays hence are a key site for examining how vocabularies of race draw upon a whole range of ideas (skin colour, religion, rank, gender). His plays embody a great contradiction – surrounding the biblical idea that all humans are children of God versus the idea of people being sorted into servants and masters.

Conclusion

In this introduction, Loomba effectively establishes the book’s critical framework, asserting that a nuanced historical reading of Shakespeare’s engagement with “otherness” is essential to understanding both the early modern period and the long history of racial thinking. 

Thus, Loomba’s argument proves to be a very insightful, critical intervention against prevailing academic assumptions, by showing that racial thinking was actively forming during the early modern era.