Shakespeare's Tragedies: Violation and Identity
Cambridge University Press, 1/5/2010
EAN 9780521608633, ISBN10: 0521608635
Paperback, 240 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Shakespeare's Tragedies: Violation and Identity traces the linked themes of violation and identity through seven Shakespearean tragedies, beginning with the rape of Lavinia in Titus Andronicus. The implications of this event - its physical and moral shock, the way it puts Lavinia's identity, and the whole notion of identity, into crisis - reverberate through Shakespeare's later tragedies. Through close, theatrically informed readings of Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth the book traces the way acts of violence provoke questions about the identities of the victims, the perpetrators, and the acts themselves. It shows that violation can be involved in the most innocent-looking acts, that words can be weapons, that interpretation itself can be a form of damage. Written in a clear, accessible style, this study provokes questions about the human implications of Shakespearean tragedy.
Introduction
1. Titus Andronicus
This was thy daughter
2. Romeo and Juliet
what's in a name? 3. Hamlet
a figure like your father
4. Troilus and Cressida
this is and is not Cressid
5. Othello
I took you for that cunning whore of Venice
6. King Lear
we have no such daughter
7. Macbeth
a deed without a name
Conclusion.