Black Women’s Bodies as the Site of Malignity: Interrogating (Mis)representations of Black Women in 16th and 17th Century British Literature

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This thesis examines the often overlooked and consistently maligned African/black female figure in 16th and 17th Century literature. Drawing from historical contexts and feminist literary criticism, this thesis accentuates a culturally nuanced and intersectional feminist examination of specific texts from the period in question and the extent to which they inform or draw from racist rhetoric. The texts examined will include William Dunbar’s Ane Blak Moir, Ben Jonson’s Masque of Blackness and Masque of Beauty, and Shakespeare’s Othello.