White Before Whiteness in the Late Middle Ages

This book explores how premodern whiteness operates through fragility, precarity, and racialicity, highlighting the limits of ruling ideologies, the vulnerability of the body politic, and the politics of recognition.

Format: Hardback
Length: 456 pages
Publication date: 09 January 2024
Publisher: Manchester University Press

This groundbreaking book delves into the intricate workings of premodern whiteness, examining its manifestations as fragility, precarity, and raciality across bodily and nonsomatic configurations. It posits that while whiteness plays a significant role in the history of racialization in the late medieval West, it extends beyond mere skin tone. Rather, the "before of whiteness," characterized by an essence and teleology, represents a discursive construction of how whiteness emerges. Fragility delineates the boundaries of ruling ideologies in the performances of mourning as a defense against perceived threats to subjectivity and desire. Precarity highlights the ruptures within normative values by foregrounding the unmarked vulnerability of the body politic and the violence of cultural aestheticization. At the same time, racialicity attends to the politics of recognition and the technologies of enfleshment at the systemic edge of life and nonlife.

Through a comprehensive analysis, the book sheds light on the complex interplay between power, identity, and the body in premodern societies. It challenges traditional narratives of whiteness as a fixed and homogeneous construct and instead presents it as a fluid and heterogeneous phenomenon. By exploring the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, the book offers a fresh perspective on the historical and contemporary implications of whiteness. This essential work will be of interest to scholars and students of history, sociology, cultural studies, and race relations, as it contributes to our understanding of the multifaceted nature of premodern whiteness and its profound impact on society.

Weight: 700g
Dimension: 146 x 224 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781526145802