Language Arts Journal of Michigan Volume 18 Article 5 Issue 1 Diversity 2002 "To blanch an Ethiop": Jonson's Masque of Blackness and Multicultural Approaches to Early Modern English Literature Kristin McDermott Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/lajm Recommended Citation McDermott, Kristin (2002) ""To blanch an Ethiop": Jonson's Masque of Blackness and Multicultural Approaches to Early Modern English Literature," Language Arts Journal of Michigan: Vol. 18: Iss. 1, Article 5. Available at: https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.1301 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Language Arts Journal of Michigan by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. "To blanch an Ethiop": Jonson's Masque of Blackness and Multicultural Approaches to Early Modern English Literature Kristin McDermott Before joining the faculty ofCentral Michigan of Blackness, even though one would assume it University, I taught for eight years at Spelman offered an important chance to explore one of the College, a historically black college for women in earliest treatments of race in English Literature, Atlanta, Georgia. Teaching Early Modern English is not often studied in any but the most advanced Literature (which encompasses both the Medieval classes, for obvious reasons. Briefly, a masque is period and the 16th _17th centuries in England) a form of dramatic entertainment in which poetic presented some exciting challenges in a setting praises ofthe monarch, the court, and their values whose mission included both Women's Studies and are presented in a setting of music, dance, and an African-Diasporic approach to culture and elaborate scenery.