“Our flesh and blood, my lord, is grown so vile”: Race, degeneration and kinship in King Lear

Abstract

This article explores how Shakespeare’s engagement with the concept of degeneration in King Lear encourages us to read the play  through the lens of race. It suggests that degeneration is used to articulate the racial consequences of Lear’s conflict with his daughters.  This article provides an introductory survey of early modern discourses of degeneration, which aims to show that theories of  degeneration were deeply engaged with varying ideas of race. It then places these discourses of degeneration in conversation with King  Lear, proposing that Lear distances himself from his daughters by accusing them of having degenerated. Whilst scholars have considered  the ways that the male characters of the play are racialised, this article builds on existing scholarship by arguing that the  articulation of familial difference through racial difference also has racial implications for the way that we read Cordelia, Goneril and  Regan.