Violence, Trauma, and Virtus in Shakespeare's Roman Poems and Plays

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Lisa S. Starks-Estes

      Pages 1-59

3. Love’s Wound: Violence, Trauma, and Ovidian Transformation in Shakespeare’s Roman Poems and Plays

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61

      PDF

   2. The Origin of Love: Ovidian Lovesickness and Trauma in Venus and Adonis

      • Lisa S. Starks-Estes

      Pages 63-82

   3. Shakespeare’s Perverse Astraea, Martyr’d Philomel, and Lamenting Hecuba: Ovid, Sadomasochism, and Trauma in Titus Andronicus

      • Lisa S. Starks-Estes

      Pages 83-97

   4. Dido and Aeneas ‘Metamorphis’d’: Ovid, Marlowe, and the Masochistic Scenario in Antony and Cleopatra

      • Lisa S. Starks-Estes

      Pages 98-112

4. Transforming Bodies: Trauma, Virtus, and the Limits of Neo-Stoicism in Shakespeare’s Roman Poems and Plays

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 113-113

      PDF

   2. ‘A wretched image bound’: Neo-Stoicism, Trauma, and the Dangers of the Bounded Self in The Rape of Lucrece

      • Lisa S. Starks-Estes

      Pages 115-128

   3. Bleeding Martyrs: The Body of the Tyrant/Saint, the Limits of ‘Constancy’, and the Extremity of the Passions in Julius Caesar

      • Lisa S. Starks-Estes

      Pages 129-144

   4. ‘One whole wound’: Virtus, Vulnerability, and the Emblazoned Male Body in Coriolanus

      • Lisa S. Starks-Estes

      Pages 145-159

   5. Coda

      • Lisa S. Starks-Estes

      Pages 160-183

5. Back Matter

   Pages 184-236

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Employing psychoanalysis, trauma theory, and materialist perspectives, this book examines Shakespeare's appropriations of Ovid's poetry in his Roman poems and plays. It argues that Shakespeare uses Ovid to explore violence, trauma, and virtus - the traumatic effects of aggression, sadomasochism, and the shifting notions of selfhood and masculinity.

• novel
• poem
• poetry
• transformation
• William Shakespeare
• British and Irish Literature

“Starks-Estes book is very accessible for both undergraduate and graduate-level teaching; her writing style is lively and engaging and her argument on Shakespeare’s use of Ovid as a means for representing trauma is nuanced, yet straightforward. … Violence, Trauma, and Virtus in Shakespeare’s Roman Poems and Plays: Transforming Ovid offers the first study of Shakespeare that focuses exclusively on trauma theory and therefore provides an important contribution to early modern scholarship.” (Nicola M. Imbrascio, This Rough Magic, thisroughmagic.org, December, 2015)

• University of South Florida St. Petersburg, USA

  Lisa S. Starks-Estes

Lisa S. Starks-Estes is Associate Professor of English at University of South Florida St. Petersburg, USA, where she directs the MLA in Liberal Studies Program. She has published articles, edited special issues of journals, and co-edited book collections on sexuality and violence in Renaissance drama, Shakespeare on screen, and other topics.

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