‘Send the midwife’: The Birth of Blackness in Titus Andronicus

• Published in: Renaissance studies Vol. 38; no. 5; pp. 693 - 712
• Main Author: Bui, Hanh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2024
• Subjects: drama; Early modern period; Epistemology; Literary characters; Midwifery; Newborn babies; Ontology; Performance theory; Race; Shakespeare; Shakespeare plays

This article examines a neglected context for understanding the ontology and epistemology of race in Shakespeare's drama: the role of the midwife. Early modern midwives performed an important cultural function by not only assisting women in labour, but also pronouncing the sex and paternity of...