Rich Ornaments and Delightful Engines: The Poetics of Failed Festivity and Figural Automation in William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus

The present study focuses on the poetics of failed festivity in William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, tracing analogies between early modern festival culture, in particular the Joyous Entry of the Renaissance prince into the city, and the machinery of the play, which is set in motion by Titus. The principal element of this machinery is the figure of Lavinia, who can be seen as the inverted version of such wonders of occa- sional architecture and civic pageantry as the automaton, the breathing sculpture and the automatic waterwork. One of the major problems explored is the confrontation of reality and fiction, or human flesh and art, in the manifestly echoic universe of the play, where the objectified automaton-like figure responds to the actions of its animators with its own stirring.

Black skin matters : the significance of color in early modern England

This book explores the impact of stereotypical concepts associated with black skin color in representations of black people during the English Renaissance, namely Shakespeare's Othello (Othello), Aaron (Titus Andronicus), Caliban (The Tempest), Rosaline (Love's Labour's Lost), and the "dark lady" (Sonnets). Ultimately, this book demonstrates how Shakespeare, and texts of select English Renaissance authors, retaliate against traditional stereotypical, mythical, or colonial representations of black people -- representations stemming from distinct resentments for black skin color, hegemonic notions of black inferiority, and opportunistic ambitions deriving from collective concepts of white superiority. These very early postcolonial-minded authors foreshadow modern postcolonial philosophers as they factually assess psychological patterns associated with early modern black people who endure racial discrimination, subjugation, and assimilation. Their literature contrasts previous and contemporary colonial works which fail to reference or utilize fact over racial myth when creating representations of black individuals.

Predator or Prey Who Do You Think You Are?

In the Japanese animation PSYCHO-PASS, the setting is a future Japan where every citizen’s mental health is monitored and analysed, and where they can sometimes be terminated according to the state of their mental health. In such a dark and dystopian setting, the motifs from the many bloody quotations of Shakespeare’s bloodiest play Titus Andronicus are used in the three-episode multiple murder case of young schoolgirls. The animation shows how Shakespeare is used to stylise and elaborate the serial murder case. This article discusses how Titus Andronicus is used to give relevance and sophistication to serial murder, and how the bloodiness of a serial murder can give a different impression to audiences by the use of literature.

BOOK REVIEW: SACHON S. SHAKESPEARE, OBJECTS AND PHENOMENOLOGY : DAGGERS OF THE MIND

The main subject of the book written by S. Sachon is the perception of objects both visible to the audience and imaginative in five Shakespearian plays: Titus Andronicus, Henry V, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. Her approach is a synthesis of phenomenology, historicism, close reading, theatrical studies and modern cognitive studies. Her aim is to analyze both audience's conscious and subconscious response to the language and images of Shakespearian plays.