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The Dumb Show of Life: Rough Justice and Silent Speech in 'The Spanish Tragedy'

Louise Noble

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaper

Abstract

Gilles Deluze writes that pantomime is internal to language, it is 'a discourse or a story within the body... the body seals and conceals a hidden language'. This insight provides us with a useful way to think about a hermeneutics of the body in the dumb show in Thomas Kyd's play, 'The Spanish Tragedy', in terms of the play's engagement with the imagery of Elizabethan judicial punishment. In its innovative treatment of the dumb show 'The Spanish Tragedy' insists that the silenced body bears testimony to a story of revenge, betrayal and violence. In early modern England the theatrical dumb show, a highly stylised theatrical device, provided a useful image for talking about life and death.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 2008
EventANZSA 2008: 10th Biennial Conference of The Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association - Embodying Shakespeare - Dunedin, New Zealand
Duration: 7 Feb 200810 Feb 2008

Conference

ConferenceANZSA 2008: 10th Biennial Conference of The Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association - Embodying Shakespeare
CityDunedin, New Zealand
Period7/02/0810/02/08

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

  • Studies in Creative Arts and Writing

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