In words and deeds : the spectacle of incest in English Renaissance tragedy / Zenon Luis-Martinez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Luis Martínez, Zenón, author.

Series:

Costerus New Series ; 145.

Costerus New Series ; 145

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tragedy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam, The Netherlands : Editions Rodopi B.V., [2002]

Summary:

Departing from earlier studies which regarded incest as a literary topos or dramatic metaphor foregrounding political, social, or legal issues, Words and Deeds: The Spectacle of Incest in English Renaissance Tragedy argues that the presence of incest on the Renaissance stage is a strategy for the enactment of the spectator's tragic experience. Incest is explored neither as a sin nor as a crime, but as an "unspeakable" experience filtered through dramatic words and deeds. The incitement of desire, visual pleasure, and unconscious fantasy, as well as traumatic rejection, pain, and horror, are all aspects of this paradoxical and uncanny experience. Aristotelian theory of tragedy, Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, and Michel Foucault's notions of the deployment of sexuality and alliance, concur in the analysis of plays where incest is a central or a secondary motif - Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore , Beaumont and Fletcher's Cupid's Revenge , Webster's The Duchess of Malfi - and others where incest is an effect of language and mise-en-scène - Sackville and Norton's Gorboduc , Shakespeare's King Lear . The variety of topics and the combination of critical perspectives makes In Words and Deeds an attractive book for students and teachers of Renaissance drama, as well as for those with a special interest in psychoanalytic and other new theoretical approaches to the literary text.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Stage on Incest/Incest on the Stage: What for, Why, and How?

Chapter One

The Play of Incest: Toward a Poetics of Desire

Chapter Two

The House and the Stage

Chapter Three

Plots of Tyrants and the Place of Desire: Gorboduc and King Lear

Chapter Four

"Look Well Upon 't:" Incest as Tragic Spectacle in Stuart Domestic Drama

Chapter Five

Tragic Character: "Incestuous Persons"

Postscript

"An Explicable Place"

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Luis-Martínez, Zenón In Words and Deeds

ISBN:

9789004489608

OCLC:

1287130513

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004489608 DOI