Rethinking the 'Spectacle of the Scaffold' : Juridical Epistemologies and English Revenge Tragedy
Abstract
Michel Foucault's analysis of penal torture as part of a regime of truth production continues to be routinely applied to the interpretation of English Renaissance drama. This paper argues that such an application misleadingly overlooks the lay participation that was characteristic of English criminal justice. It goes on to explore the implications of the epistemological differences between continental inquisitorial models of trial and the jury trial as it developed in sixteenth-century England, arguing that rhetorical and political differences between these two models are dramatized in the unfolding action of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
Citation
Hutson , L M 2005 , ' Rethinking the 'Spectacle of the Scaffold' : Juridical Epistemologies and English Revenge Tragedy ' , Representations , vol. 89 , no. 1 , pp. 30-58 . https://doi.org/10.1525/rep.2005.89.1.30
Publication
Representations
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0734-6018Type
Journal article
Collections
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