Demetaphorization, Anatomy, and the Semiotics of the Reformation in Early Modern Revenge Tragedy

Reformation theology induced a profound thanatological crisis in the semiotics of the human being and the body. The Protestant Reformation discontinued numerous practices of intercession and communal ritual, and the early modern subject was left vulnerable in the face of death. The English Renaissan...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inStudia Anglica Posnaniensia Vol. 53; no. 1; pp. 177 - 201
Main Author Kiss, Attila
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Poznan Adam Mickiewicz University 01.03.2018
De Gruyter Poland
Sciendo
Subjects
Ambiguity
Analysis
anatomy
British & Irish literature
Creativity
demetaphorization
Drama
Early modern period
English literature
Iconography
Interiority
Investigations
Literary criticism
Literary theory
Mimesis
Poetry
Protestant Reformation
reformation
Revenge tragedy
Rhetorical figures
Semiotics
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
Stoicism
thanatological crisis
Thanatology
Theater
Theology
Traditions
Violence
United Kingdom
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Reformation theology induced a profound thanatological crisis in the semiotics of the human being and the body. The Protestant Reformation discontinued numerous practices of intercession and communal ritual, and the early modern subject was left vulnerable in the face of death. The English Renaissance stage played out these anxieties within the larger context of the epistemological uncertainties of the age, employing violence and the anatomization of the body as representational techniques. While theories of language and tragic poetry oscillated between different ideas of imitatio (granting priority to the model) and mimesis (with preference for the creative and individual nature of the copy), the new anatomical interest and dissective perspectives also had their effects on the rhetorical practices of revenge tragedies. In the most shocking moments of these plays, rhetorical tropes suddenly turn into grisly reality, and figures of speech become demetaphorized, literalized. In a double anatomy of body and mind, English Renaissance revenge tragedy simultaneously employs and questions the emblematic and poetic traditions of representation, and the ensuing indeterminacy and ambiguity open paths for a new mimesis.
ISSN:0081-6272
2082-5102
DOI:10.2478/stap-2018-0008