The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages: An Annotated Bibliography

Abstract

Institutional Affiliation 16th April 2021 Race Annotated Bibliography Heng, Geraldine. The Invention of Race in the European Middle Age. Cambridge University Press (March 8, 2018), 504 pages. Retrieved from: https://search.lib.utexas.edu/permalink/01UTAU_INST/1jebi5l/cdi_askewsholts_vlebooks_[phone]261 This article provides inclusive and credible justification of race as a mannerism of medieval culture. The author, Heng recognizes race as an idea that show a discrepancy from one place to another and revolutionizes in diverse ways with time. Race was intricately interlinked with religious perspective and its medieval uniqueness is obligated to different religious communities where it derived meaning. The book disputes the universal conviction that race and racism are concepts that were constructed only in the modern period. The book infiltrates explanation of how religion in form of socio-culture and bio-political knowledge constructed race, “allow us to push at the limits of our understanding of the very grounds of cultural comparison and of knowledge production” (Heng, 518). Heng demonstrate race as a tool that organizes and deploys human diversity in the world and across time. Heng Geraldine is an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature. Her scholarly background is characterised with pre-modernity and medieval era. As a prominent figure in the rise of postcolonial advances to the European Middle Ages, she noticed many important race studies that viewed race as a concept constructed only by the modern era. She then thought of understanding and conceptualizing race during a pre-modernity time where the authoritative conversation central to race did not include science but religion. Her objective was to provide a broad history of race that goes beyond modernity. The publication of this article is essential to audience who lack knowledge about Middle age, curious about race/racism and interested in understanding the origin of racism in the past. The book is important to our project since...