Race and Beauty: Early Modern Cosmetics and the Mythology of Whiteness - Paperback

by Josie Schoel (Author)

This work examines how beauty standards, specifically the ideology of "fairness," contributed to the racialization of bodies in early modern England. Schoel emphasizes the need to dismantle whiteness's invisibility in historical criticism, noting that it has long been an unexamined norm.

Author Biography

Josie Schoel is a professor at the Department of English at Endicott College, specializing in early modern British literature and culture. Her work, which has appeared in SEL: Studies in English Literature: 1500‒1900 and Dynamic Matter: Transforming Renaissance Objects, explores cosmetic materiality and emerging notions of cultural difference and racial meaning.