Thompson, Ayanna. “Indecorum and empire in Titus Andronicus.” Throughlines. Throughlines.org/suite-content/indecorum-and-empire-in-titus-andronicus. [date accessed].

Indecorum and empire in Titus Andronicus

The undeniable pull of Shakespeare's goriest tragedy

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Ayanna Thompson
Arizona State University

Titus Andronicus' use of violence seeks to expose how imperial Rome, built on excess and appetite, lost any coherent social and moral order. Drawing on classical ideas of decorum, the play presents a world where an empire’s drive to expand and incorporate others dissolves distinctions between Roman and foreign, civilized and barbaric. If we wipe away all the blood, we can find a cautionary reflection on early modern anxieties about empire, cosmopolitanism, and the unstable boundaries of cultural and racial identity.

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