Early Modern Tragedy and the Cinema of Violence

by S. Simkin

Overview

This study considers parallel issues in revenge tragedies of the early seventeenth-century and violent cinema of the last thirty years. It offers a series of provocative explorations of death, revenge and justice, and gender and violence. What happens when we connect The White Devil with Basic Instinct— The Changeling or Titus Andronicus with Straw Dogs— Doctor Faustus with Se7en— Taxi Driver with The Spanish Tragedy— Appealing to those with an interest in either drama or film, written in an engaging style, the book also reconsiders the high /popular culture divide, and reflects on the enduring significance of the revenge motif in Western culture over the past four hundred years, particularly in the post 9/11 context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349522392
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	12/15/2005
Edition description:	1st ed. 2006
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

STEVIE SIMKIN is Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Winchester, UK. His previous publications include A Preface to Marlowe, Marlowe: The Stage Plays and Revenge Tragedy: A New Casebook. He has particular interests in politicized approaches to staging the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and in Hollywood film.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: Worlds Apart PART I: JUSTICE AND REVENGE Introduction: 'Don't Get Mad, Get Even' Revenge in its Social Contexts: Early Modern Tragedy Revenge in its Social Contexts: Late Twentieth Century Cinema 'When the bad bleed, then is the tragedy good': Politics, Morality and Revenge 'Taint not thy mind': the Morality of Revenge PART II: GENDER AND VIOLENCE Women Dipped in Blood: Gender, Violence and Control in Early Modern Tragedy A Thin Red Line: Gender, Violence and Contemporary Cinema Sex and Violence: The Changeling (1622) and Straw Dogs (1971) White Devils and Basic Instincts PART III: DEATH AND THE DAMAGED BODY Introduction: Vile Bodies Spectacles of Death Punishment and Redemption Conclusion: Gendered Revenge List of Play and Film Texts Notes and References Bibliography Index