Early Modern Cultural Trauma on the Page and Stage

Early Modern Cultural Trauma on the Page and Stage explores the manner in which cultural trauma operates in a variety of texts from the period.Reorienting readers away from traditional psychoanalytic trauma studies, the application of cultural trauma theory in the volume investigates the way in which trauma was intentionally deployed by authors ranging from William Shakespeare and other playwrights, polemicists and controversialists, and how those traumatic resonances impact our modern reading of such texts. Through the essays presented here, this volume argues that the lens of cultural trauma yields a nuanced approach to trauma studies, especially beneficial when examining historical periods without easy access to confessional or diaristic writing to point toward more individual responses to trauma. Excellent for scholars of Shakespeare, the early modern period, or those with an interest in how trauma can be used by the state or other meaning-makers as an effective means of wrangling disparate public opinion, the essays in the volume represent a wide array of approaches to the literature of the age. Including examinations of popular plays, poems, and other non-narrative works from the era, Early Modern Cultural Trauma on the Page and Stage is essential for any scholar interested in trauma studies as a lens for pre- and early modern historical periods.