2050 years after her death, Cleopatra VII continues to cause controversy. The casting of Adele James, a Black actor, in the role of Cleopatra in the new Netflix drama-documentary has caused sufficient furore that Richard Alston has been interviewed by a Czech news site.
'The Death of Cleopatra’, by Edmonia Lewis, one of the first major African American sculptors.
Whereas for most of the intervening centuries, Cleopatra has been used to think about sexuality and the status of women, from the nineteenth century onwards, she has been increasingly racialised. In many depictions, Cleopatra is portrayed as White. Her image was used to reinforce views of female beauty in a society shot through with racism and colonialism. Her depiction normalised racist theories which associated 'civilization' with Northern and Western Europeans. White Cleopatras are seen as normal, Black Cleopatras as controversial.
It should be needless to say (but it clearly isn't) that such views are nonsense. The cultures we associate with 'Classical' civilization ranged geographically across North Africa, the Middle East, Southern Europe and the lands south of the Danube and west of the Rhine. Cultural contributions were drawn from all the peoples of these lands. The particular human adaptive responses to UV rays that accounts for differences in skin pigmentation are not related to cultural sophistication and the Greeks and Romans did not make that extraordinary assumption.
The legacy of racist and colonial assumptions is still with us and not just in the extremity of Far-Right ideologies, as the furious reaction to the casting of Adele James shows. In his interview with Voxpot, Richard welcomes her casting as Cleopatra. Why should a Black actor not be cast in this role? Historically, Cleopatra's skin colouring was unimportant. But culturally, there is every reason to counter racist assumptions by casting her.
For those of you wanting to test out your languages, the article is here:https://www.voxpot.cz/kleopatra-byla-cernoska-tvrdi-filmari-v-upoutavce-na-novy-pocin-netflixu-co-je-na-tom-pravdy/
Note: this is an external website and Royal Holloway takes no responsibility for the views expressed there. Similarly, we make no endorsement of the Netflix documentary.
