Titus Andronicus in which the young Lavinia is raped and then brutally mutilated, is arguably Shakespeare’s most explicit and complex play involving rape. A range of theatrical, feminist, and performance literature examines the character of Lavinia and the representation of her assault. Yet, the representation of rape, like rape itself, is socially and historically constructed. This article reviews societal, legal, and medical views of rape from Shakespeare’s late 16th-century London to the present. By applying a temporal lens to productions of Titus Andronicus staged in varying time periods, performance can be seen to explicate historical stages in the understanding of rape victims and their subsequent trauma. Thus, a 400-year-old play continues to reflect modern reality by depicting a contemporary understanding of rape and trauma, shaped by social mores, legal structures, and scientific knowledge.
ClarkA. (1987). Women’s silence and men’s violence: Sexual assault in England, 1770-1845. London, UK: Pandora.
10.
DaCostaJ. (1871). On the irritable heart: A clinical study of a form of functional cardiac disorder following natural disaster. American Journal of Medical Sciences, 61, 17-52.
11.
DelucaM.LindrothM. (2000) Mayhem, madness, method: An interview with Julie Taymor. Cineaste, 25(3), 28-31.
12.
DolanJ. (2008). Feminist performance criticism and the popular: Reviewing Wendy Wasserstein. Theatre Journal, 60, 433-457.
13.
DubinskyK. (1992). Maiden girls or designing women? The crime of seduction in turn-of-the-century Ontario. In IacovettaF.ValverdeM. (Eds.), Gender conflicts: New essays in women’s history. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
14.
EhrenreichB.EnglishD. (1978). For her own good: 150 years of the expert’s advice to women. New York, NY: Doubleday.
15.
EndersJ. (2004). The spectacle of the scaffolding: Rape and the violent foundations of medieval theatre studies. Theatre Journal, 56, 163-181.
16.
FlechsigP. (1986). On the gynecological treatment of hysteria (MassonJ., Trans.). In A dark science: Women, sexuality and psychiatry in the nineteenth century (pp. 45-60). New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Original work published 1884)
17.
FreudS. (1957). Mourning and melancholia (StracheyJ., Trans.). In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14). London, UK: Hogarth. (Original work published 1917)
18.
GrothN.BurgessA.HolmstromL. (1977) Rape: Power, anger, and sexuality. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 1239-1243.
19.
HadfieldA. (2003) Shakespeare and Republicanism: History and cultural materialism. Textual Practice, 17, 461-483.
20.
HamiltonE. (1969). Mythology. New York, NY: Signet.
21.
HardwickJ. (1992). Widowhood and patriarchy in seventeenth century France. Journal of Social History, 26(1), 133-148.
22.
HermanJ. (1992). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence—from domestic abuse to political terror. New York, NY: Basic Books.
JohnsonS. (2003). The toleration and erotization of rape: Interpreting Charles Perrault’s “Le Petit Chaperson Rouge” with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French jurisprudence. Women’s Studies, 32, 325-352.
25.
KossM. (2000). Blame, shame and the community: Justice responses to violence against women. American Psychologist, 55, 1332-1343.
26.
MacKenzieJ. (1916). The soldier’s heart and war neurosis: A study in symptomology. British Medical Journal, 1, 491-495.
27.
MassonJ. (1986). A dark science: Women, sexuality and psychiatry in the nineteenth century. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
28.
McCandlessD. (2002). A tale of two Tituses: Julie Taymor’s vision on stage and screen. Shakespeare Quarterly, 53, 487-451
29.
MottF. (1918). War psychoneurosis: Neurasthenia: The disorders and disabilities of fear. Lancet, 1, 127-129.
30.
OppenheimerB.RothschildM. (1918). The psychoneurotic factor in the irritable heart of soldiers. British Medical Journal, 2, 29-31.
31.
Ovid. (1955). Metamorphosis (HumphriesR., Trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
32.
PageH. (1885). Injury of the spinal cord without apparent legion and nervous shock, in their surgical and medico-legal aspects. London, UK: J. & A. Church.
33.
RegehrC.GlancyG. (1993). Rape or romance? Perspectives on sexual assault. Annals of Sexual Research, 6, 305-318.
34.
RegehrC.AlaggiaR.LambertL.SainiM. (2008) Victims of sexual violence in the Canada criminal courts. Victims and Offenders, 3(1), 1-15.
35.
RudolphJ. (2000). Rape and Resistance: Women and consent in seventeenth-century English legal and political thought. Journal of British Studies, 39(2), 157-184.
36.
ShakespeareW. (1590). Titus Andronicus.
37.
ShermanD. (2009). The absent elegy: Performing trauma in the Winter’s Tale. Shakespeare Bulletin, 27(2), 197-221.
38.
SmartC. (1991). Regulating womanhood: Historical essays on marriage, motherhood, and sexuality. London, UK: Routledge.
39.
SolgaK.(2006). Rape’s metatheatrical return: Rehearsing sexual violence among the early moderns. Theater Journal, 58, 53-72.
40.
SouthwardE. (1919). Shell shock. Boston, MA: W. M. Leonard.
41.
StevensonK. (2007). Unearthing the realities of rape: Utilizing Victorian newspaper reportage to fill in the contextual gaps. Liverpool Law Review, 28, 405-423.
42.
TaymorJ. (with HopkinsA.LennixH.LangJ.FraserL.). (1999). Titus [DVD]. Los Angeles, CA, Twentieth Century Fox.
43.
van der KolkB.McFarlaneA.WeisaethL. (1996), Traumatic stress: The Effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society. New York, NY: Guildford.
44.
Van der KolkB.van der HartO. (1989). Pierre Janet and the breakdown of adaptation in psychological trauma. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 1530-1540.
45.
WillisD. (2002). The gnawing vulture: Revenge, trauma theory, and Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare Quarterly, 53, 21-52.
46.
WoodbridgeL. (1991). Palisading the Elizabethan body politic. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 33, 327-354.
47.
ZambacoD. (1986). Masturbation and psychological problems in two little girls (MassonJ., Trans.). In A Dark science: women, sexuality and psychiatry in the nineteenth century (pp. 61-89). New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Original work published 1882)
