The “dark Welsh”

Color, race, and alterity in the matter of medieval Wales

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12879875
AutoresCoral Lumbley (0000-0003-1803-2986, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen16
Número9-10
Fecha de publicación2019-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLiterature Compass (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1741-4113 • E-ISSN: 1741-4113
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lic3.12538
OpenAlexW2997896121
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas80

This article examines how the medieval Welsh were racialized by Anglo‐Saxon and Anglo‐Norman sources and how the Welsh in turn developed a model of racial alterity. Literary sources, including the Old English riddles and the ethnographic work of Gerald of Wales, followed classical sources in their portrayals of the Welsh as being marked by “swarthiness,” or comparatively dark complexions. Rather than following this rhetorical practice, medieval Welsh literature reveals that the Welsh considered themselves pale‐complected, with darkness justifying biopolitical regulation of non‐European Christian peoples. While pseudo‐scientific racial discourse classifies the modern Welsh as white Caucasian, medieval texts negotiate difference between peoples with a range of methods and purposes, with racial difference being negotiated throughout various traditions in British literature

Alterity · Archaeology · Art · Literature · Race (biology · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Theology · Welsh · White (mutation · Anthropology · Classics · Gender Studies · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity