This talk explores the history of air pollution in early modern London and one strategy that emerged to represent this phenomenon on stage: what I call “coalface performance,” or the impersonation of the laborers responsible for transporting and selling coal. As my terminology suggests, coalface had much in common with early blackface performance, or the impersonation of black-skinned Africans. Most notably, both performance traditions often involved blackening an actor’s face, body or clothing with coal dust or soot. When Aaron, the blackfaced Moor of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, proclaims that “coal-black is better than another hue,” he calls attention to this shared technology of theatrical representation. In this talk, I situate Aaron’s famous line alongside understudied examples of coalface performance from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to clarify the relationship between coal, class, and the history of racialization. I then turn to Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist to show how Jonson reworks the coalface performance tradition by destabilizing the link between coal and laboring bodies through its use of smoky special effects. In doing so, I argue, Jonson’s play reframes the smoke produced by coal as an urban ecological problem in which all Londoners, not just lower-class laborers, are implicated. I conclude by considering how attention to this nascent urban ecological consciousness might impact how we read Aaron’s blackface and the racial paradigms it seeks to uphold.
This event will be held online via Zoom. You can access the meeting using this link: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/4855059036. Please find the full Zoom invitation below.
The meeting will be held from 7-8:30pm EST, with announcements from 7-7:15pm, the talk 7:15-8:00pm and Q&A from 8-8:30pm. We will also host a casual social/cocktail half hour after the meeting. Since there won't be a dinner and we have no space constraints, an RSVP is not required. But I am still circulating the Evite for the sake of consistency and to preserve our sense of community. You can find announcements from our seminar members at the end of this email.
Columbia University encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. The University Seminar participants with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations or who have questions about physical access may contact the Office of Disability Services at 212-854-2388 or [email protected]. Disability accommodations, including sign-language interpreters, are available on request. Requests for accommodations must be made two weeks in advance. On campus, Seminar participants with disabilities should alert a Public Safety Officer that they need assistance accessing campus.
