ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to track trends within the broader field of early modern race studies. It traces the vacillating concept from William Shakespeare's time – highlighting the way the term could evoke and invoke lineage, nationality, religion, sexuality, class, language, and/or skin colour – and tracks its radical instability into the twenty-first century. The chapter considers the debates about the uses of, and absences in, historical records, a particularly important issue given the recent attention in the field to the physical remnants of early modern performance culture. It also traces the history of Shakespeare's Othello from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first century. Focusing on key historical moments – the Restoration, the early to mid-nineteenth century, the mid-twentieth century, and the early twenty-first century – the chapter demonstrates how performances of Shakespeare's racially charged tragedy have both reflected and sparked wider debates about race.
