Open AccessRape, Massacre, The Lucrece Tradition, and <i>Alarum for London</i>
Author(s) -
Georgina Lucas
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
early theatre
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2293-7609
pISSN - 1206-9078
DOI - 10.12745/et.20.2.3208
Subject(s) - drama , soul , rhetorical question , mythology , conflation , rubric , literature , art , sociology , philosophy , theology , linguistics , pedagogy
This article explores the conflation of rhetorical and physical acts of rape and massacre in a range of early modern drama, culminating in a case study of the two phenomena in Alarum for London (1599). Rooting its analysis in the Lucrece myth, the essay demonstrates how prominent traditions of reading rape – as an attack on the soul, and as an attack on a city – provide a rubric through which Alarum can be understood. When enacted concomitantly, rape and massacre have the propensity to destroy body and soul, individual, and the wider society to which they belong.