Citation

Kingsley‐Smith J. Lit. Compass 2008; 5(1): 106-121.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1741-4113.2007.00510.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Titus Andronicus has often been judged to be less than the sum of its parts – perhaps because those parts are so sensational. Yet, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the play has experienced a striking reversal in its critical and theatrical fortunes. This reversal has been based on a perception of the play's integrity, discovered not just in the links between stage properties and language, nor between its violent set-pieces and its overall structure, but in the play's claim to moral and aesthetic unity. This essay focuses on the critical fortunes of Titus Andronicus in the last fifty years, with particular reference to Julie Taymor's film, Titus (USA, 1999). It engages with issues of violence, language and the body, gender and racial difference, and genre.