The Forging of a Tawny Spain: Othello, Lepanto, and the “Turkish Heart Hid Beneath”

As a country characterized as a "tawny" nation but increasingly censured for its colonialist practices, Spain illustrates many of the contradicting racial grids that articulate early modern identities. The unique juxtaposition of a multicultural past, inquisitorial present, and grimly prof...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revista hispánica moderna 2021-12, Vol.74 (2), p.200-226
Main Author: LAGUNA, ANA MARÍA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Culture
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Otherness
Propaganda
Race
Racial differences
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:As a country characterized as a "tawny" nation but increasingly censured for its colonialist practices, Spain illustrates many of the contradicting racial grids that articulate early modern identities. The unique juxtaposition of a multicultural past, inquisitorial present, and grimly profitable colonial future allowed it to be construed as an African, Moorish, and zealous Christian power, sometimes simultaneously. The country's assumed otherness would be constantly reinforced by enemies and allies alike in astutely ambiguous terms. Through tracts of this nature, Black Legend discourses show a racialized logic of their own, one that spread like wildfire through mid-to-late sixteenth-century Europe. Embarking on just such a reconsideration, this essay explores the deep roots of the idea of a Black Spain in the European intelligentsia of the 1500s, when peer powers aimed to reshape the geopolitical order piloted by the Iberian empire by pushing the limits of their influence and by undermining Spanish predominance and its continental affiliation--its Europeanism.
ISSN:0034-9593
1944-6446
1944-6446
DOI:10.1353/rhm.2021.0021