Abstract

The spectacle of strangeness in early modern drama underscores a paradoxical dynamic of seduction and repulsion. How can a playwright stage the untenable spectacle of violence and maintain the attention of the audience? This study proposes to explore the various textual and dramatic techniques used to stage the spectacle of infamy. Focusing on both metaphorical and material means of expression, we will try to delineate the geographies of morbidity on the early modern stage. Dwelling on the notion of paradoxical spaces common to the stranger and the familiar and on that of the dead body as a locus of anxiety, we will try to analyse the strategies employed by early modern playwrights to express the concept of strangeness.