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Martin Japtok and Winfried Schleiner (essay date 1999)

SOURCE: Japtok, Martin and Winfried Schleiner. “Genetics and ‘Race’ in The Merchant of Venice.” Literature and Medicine 18, no. 2 (1999): 155-72.

[In the following essay, the critics argue that The Merchant of Venice demonstrates that “racism was already fully operational” in the late Elizabethan era, despite the fact that “race” as a concept had not been fully developed.]

Can a cultural historian of Shakespeare's period speak about genetics and eugenics in relation to Jews and Moors? Not only did words like Jews, Moors, and race mean something different then from what they have meant since the nineteenth century, but a glance at a historical dictionary will tell us that the term genetics did not yet exist.¹ Therefore it might be the better part of valor for us as cultural historians to avoid such terms and, someone might...

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1. Introduction
2. Criticism: Overviews And General Studies
   1. Walter Cohen (essay date winter 1982)
3. Criticism: Character Studies
   1. Richard Abrams (essay date 1996)
   2. Bruce Boehrer (essay date summer 1999)
   3. Gary Rosenshield (essay date 2002)
4. Criticism: Production Reviews
   1. Peter Marks (review date 13 January 1999)
   2. Hal Jensen (review date 2 July 1999)
   3. Matt Wolf (review date 2 August 1999)
   4. Robert Smallwood (review date 1999)
   5. John Simon (review date 14 February 2000)
   6. Alvin Klein (review date 5 November 2000)
   7. Robert Smallwood (review date 2000)
   8. Caryn James (review date 8 October 2001)
   9. Toby Young (review date 10 November 2001)
5. Criticism: Themes
   1. Thomas Luxon (essay date January 1999)
   2. Steve Patterson (essay date spring 1999)
   3. Martin Japtok and Winfried Schleiner (essay date 1999)
6. Further Reading
7. Copyright