Race and Beauty - Early Modern Cosmetics and the Mythology of Whiteness

This work examines how beauty standards, specifically the ideology of "fairness," contributed to the racialization of bodies in early modern England. Schoel emphasizes the need to dismantle whiteness's invisibility in historical criticism, noting that it has long been an unexamined norm.

List of contents

Introduction: "scorched no more.": Performing Whiteness
Chapter 1: "Bought, Borrowed, and Sold Complexions:"
Cosmetics and Anglo-Ottoman Traffic
Chapter 2: "Fair Figures": The Portraits of Elizabeth I"
Chapter 3: "Dappled Ladies": Maculation as Racial Coding
Chapter 4: "Strange Shoppes of Drugges:"
The Apothecary and The Marketing of Whiteness
Chapter 5: "Lyke unto a Lyvely Thing": The White Effigial Body.
Chapter 6: "A noble confection": Ben Jonson's
Masque of Gypsies Metamorphosed
Epilogue
Bibliography

About the author

Josie Schoel is a professor at the Department of English at Endicott College, specializing in early modern British literature and culture. Her work, which has appeared in SEL: Studies in English Literature: 1500¿1900 and Dynamic Matter: Transforming Renaissance Objects, explores cosmetic materiality and emerging notions of cultural difference and racial meaning.

Summary

This work examines how beauty standards, specifically the ideology of "fairness," contributed to the racialization of bodies in early modern England. Schoel emphasizes the need to dismantle whiteness's invisibility in historical criticism, noting that it has long been an unexamined norm.

Product details

• Authors: Josie Schoel
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 16.04.2025
• EAN: 9781032499338
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3249933-8
• No. of pages: 182
• Series: New Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Modern Culture
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); European History, HISTORY / General, HISTORY / Europe / General, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Modern / 16th Century, HISTORY / Modern / 17th Century, HISTORY / Women, Theatre Studies, History of Science, Social and cultural history, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, History and Archaeology