015 Shakespeare’s Edgelord Phase: Titus Andronicus

This one gets all the trigger warnings: rape, murder, racism, amputation, cannibalism, questionable anachronisms, and probably a few others I’ve forgotten. Does this draw you in? It certainly scared off centuries of Shakespeare admirers. Some early critics even refused to believe Shakespeare penned this blood bath.

Is Titus Andronicus a good riff on the Roman tragedy? Or is it all just a bit much? Michael and Sophie dig in.

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Sources:

The Oxford Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus (Oxford University Press)

Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage, edited by Brian Vickers (Routledge)

Peter Ackroyd, Shakespeare: The Biography (Vintage)

Johnathan Bate, How the Classics Made Shakespeare (Princeton)

Anna Beer, The Life of the Author, William Shakespeare (Wiley Blackwell)

Samuel Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare: A Compact Documentary Life (Oxford University Press)