Select annotated bibliography entry
Brown, David Sterling. “‘Is Black so Base a Hue?’: Black Life Matters in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.” In Early Modern Black Diaspora Studies, edited by Cassander Smith, et al. 137-155. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Investigates the construction of Blackness in Shakespeare's late 16th-century play Titus Andronicus. Brown considers the modes in which the play uses Black characters, such as Aaron and his child, to illuminate a line of tension between racist and anti-racist work being done by the text. Beyond the early modern context, the chapter considers ongoing reverberations of Titus Andronicus in 20th-century film. The chapter engages debates in the study of Shakespeare, English literature, and film studies.
