Archive for April, 2009
Cannibalism, Titus Andronicus and the Re-Making of Rome
Reading cannibalism as a subversively benevolent sort of violence in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus—as incorporation and, potentially, a drive toward wholeness with other individuals, with the earth, and with primordial origins—can break down boundaries between bodies and individuals and re-vision horrific violence as a healing enterprise on a psycho-cultural level. Though it is difficult to see violent acts as positive, I argue that symbolism, representation and language in the text can lend themselves to this interpretation. Cannibalistic violence is a rage turned both outward and inward, but in this turning inward there is a reconstitution and redemption inherent in the act. How might we re-vision the ending of the play by thinking about cannibalism in this alternative way? What then might we learn about the evolution of the cycle of violence and the ways in which extreme violent acts inflame or end it? Cannibalism at its very core incorporates rather than deconstructs. Collapsing the boundaries between self and other, and between self and earth might some way be seen as a movement toward ending the cycle of violence, but only after we have seen the most horrific form we can imagine.