Racism and Early Blackface Comic Traditions

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.