Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities

Abstract

The return of Titus and the revenge genre to which it belongs requires explanation. We might crib Coleridge's criticism that audiences today love violence and vulgarity. But that refines the question rather than answering it. Why do graphic representations of violence capture us today more than they captured our great-grandparents? I believe our view of revenge tragedies hews so closely to the Elizabethan one because our times are more like Elizabethan times along a crucial dimension: the sense of the fragility of the rule of law. The beginning of a fully globalized society without an overarching government means injuries will routinely occur without any legal remedy. Enhanced weapons and information technology have created a climate where a revenge cycle need not "cycle" far to have catastrophic consequences. For this reason, we distance ourselves from Shakespeare's first tragedy at our risk. Titus is not immature. It is inaugural. It depicts the threat of endless private vengeance that calls the law into being. Without understanding that threat, we cannot understand the origins of law-in Shakespeare's world or our own.

First Page

203

Volume

21

Publication Date

2009

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