Verbal Representations of Violence
Seminar Questions
- How far did the representation of early modern violence vary in different verbal genres?
- To what extent did the verbal representation of violence vary across Europe and over time?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of verbal sources for the understanding of violence in early modern Europe?
Required Reading
All students should read three of the following items:
- Cohen, Thomas V., and Elizabeth S. Cohen, Words and Deeds in Renaissance Rome: Trials before Papal MagistratesLink opens in a new window (Toronto, 1993). [Please read the Introduction and Chapter Three 'Octavia and Her Music Teacher']
- Darnton, Robert, ‘Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning of Mother Goose’ in Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural HistoryLink opens in a new window (New York, 1984), pp. 9-72.
- Kane, S.A., 'Wives With Knives: Early Modern Murder Ballads and the Transgressive CommodityLink opens in a new window,' Criticism 38 (1996), 219-238.
- Walker, Garthine, ‘Rereading Rape and Sexual Violence in Early Modern EnglandLink opens in a new window’, Gender and History 10 (1998), 1-25.
E-Resources
- Kyd, Thomas, The Spanish TragedyLink opens in a new window
- Shakespeare, William, HamletLink opens in a new window
- The Complete Newgate CalendarLink opens in a new window
- The Old Bailey OnlineLink opens in a new window [For BBC podcasts which use these records click hereLink opens in a new window]
- Early English Books OnlineLink opens in a new window
- Eighteenth Century Collections OnlineLink opens in a new window
-
Broadside Ballads OnlineLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
Further Reading
(see also the bibliography for Justice)
Arnade, Peter, and Walter Prevenier, Honor, Vengeance, and Social Trouble: Pardon Letters in the Burgundian Low Countries (Ithaca, NY, 2015)
Becker, Lucinda M., Death and the Early Modern EnglishwomanLink opens in a new window (Aldershot, 2003)
Cholakian, Patricia Francis, Rape and Writing in the Heptaméron of Marguerite de Navarre (Carbondale and Edwardsville, 1991)
Clark, Sandra, Women and Crime in the Street Literature of Early Modern EnglandLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2003)
Covington, Sarah, '"Broken Verses across a Bloodied Land": Violence and the Limits of Language in the English Civil War', in Jonathan Davies (ed.), Aspects of Violence in Renaissance EuropeLink opens in a new window (Farnham, 2013), pp. 127-149.
Davis, Natalie Zemon, Fiction in the Archives: Pardon Tales and their Tellers in Sixteenth-Century France (Cambridge, 1987)
Feather, Jennifer, and Catherine E. Thomas (eds), Violent Masculinities: Male Aggression in Early Modern Texts and Culture (Basingstoke, 2013)
Feather, Jennifer, Writing Combat and the Self in Early Modern English LiteratureLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2011)
Foakes, R.A., Shakespeare and ViolenceLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2003)
Goethals, Jessica, 'Spectators of the Sack: Rhetorical ‘Particularity’ and Graphic Violence in Luigi Guicciardini’s Historia del sacco di RomaLink opens in a new window', Italian Studies 68/2 (2013), 175-201.
von Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoffel, SimplicissimusLink opens in a new window, trans. Michael Mitchell (Sawtry, 1999)
Hale, J.R., 'Sixteenth-Century Explanations of War and ViolenceLink opens in a new window', Past and Present 51 (1971), 3-26
Harari, Yuval N., Renaissance Military Memoirs: War, History, and Identity, 1450-1600 (Woodbridge, 2004)
Harden, Faith S., Arms and Letters: Military Life Writing in Early Modern Spain (Toronto, 2020)
Härter, Karl, 'Political Crime in Early Modern Europe: Assassination, Legal Responses and Popular Print MediaLink opens in a new window', European Journal of Criminology 11/2 (2013), 142-68
Herrick, Marvin, Italian Tragedy in the RenaissanceLink opens in a new window (Urbana, 1965)
Kaiser, Daniel H., ‘“He Said, She Said”: Rape and Gender Discourse in Early Modern RussiaLink opens in a new window,” Kritika 3/2 (2002), 197-216.
King, Emily L., Civil Vengeance : Literature, Culture, and Early Modern RevengeLink opens in a new window (Cornell, 2019)
Kirch, Miriam Hall, 'Death on the Danube', in Jonathan Davies (ed.), Aspects of Violence in Renaissance EuropeLink opens in a new window (Farnham, 2013), pp. 61-81.
Larson, Donald R., The Honor Plays of Lope de VegaLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, Mass., 1977)
Low, Jennifer A., Manhood and the Duel: Masculinity in Early Modern Drama and CultureLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2003)
McIlvenna, Una, Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900 (New York, 2022)
MacMillan, Ken, (ed.), Stories of True Crime in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 2015)
Marshall, Cynthia, The Shattering of the Self: Violence, Subjectivity, and Early Modern TextsLink opens in a new window (Baltimore, 2002)
Martin, Randall, Women, Murder, and Equity in Early Modern EnglandLink opens in a new window (London, 2012)
Martin, Randall, ed., Women and Murder in Early Modern News Pamphlets and Broadside Ballads, 1573-1697Link opens in a new window (Aldershot, 2005)
Mazzoni, Cristina, 'Violence in Fairy Tales: Basile's 'Lo cunto de li cunti' and Garrone's 'Il racconto dei racconti'Link opens in a new window', Annali d'Italianistica 35 (2017), 177-92.
Medici, Lorenzino de’, Apology for a MurderLink opens in a new window, trans. Andrew Brown, with a foreword by Tim Parks (London, 2004)
Mortimer, Geoff, Eyewitness Accounts of the Thirty Years War 1618-48 (Basingstoke, 2002)
Murrin, Michael, History and Warfare in Renaissance Epic (Chicago, 1994)
Robertson, Elizabeth, and Christine M. Rose, eds, Representing Rape in Medieval and Early Modern LiteratureLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2001)
Royer, Katherine, The English Execution Narrative, 1200–1700 (Abingdon, 2013)
Salzberg, Rosa, and Massimo Rospocher, 'Murder Ballads' in Trevor Dean and K. J. P. Lowe, eds, Murder in Renaissance ItalyLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2017), pp. 164-186
Sharpe, James J., 'Reporting Crime in the North of England eighteenth-century Newspaper: a Preliminary InvestigationLink opens in a new window', Crime, History and Societies 16/1 (2012), 25-45.
Simkin, Stevie, ed., Revenge TragedyLink opens in a new window (Basingstoke, 2001)
Solga, Kim, Violence Against Women in Early Modern Performance: Invisible Acts (Basingstoke, 2009)
Symonds, Deborah A., Weep Not For Me: Women, Ballads and Infanticide in Early Modern Scotland (Pennslyvania, 1997)
Taylor, Scott K., Honor and Violence in Golden Age Spain (New Haven, 2008)
Terry-Fritsch, Allie, and Erin Felicia Labbie, eds, Beholding Violence in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Farnham, 2012)
Vega, Lope de, 'Punishment Without Revenge,' in Lope de Vega, Three Major PlaysLink opens in a new window, ed. and trans. Gwynne Edwards (Oxford, 1999), pp. 169-265.
Wade, Mara R. (ed.), Gender Matters: Discourses of Violence in Early Modern Literature and the ArtsLink opens in a new window (Amsterdam, 2013)
Wilson, Peter H., 'Perceptions of Violence in the Early Modern Communications Revolution: the Case of the Thirty Years' War 1618-1648', in Athina Karatzogianni (ed.), Violence and War in Culture and the Media: Five Disciplinary LensesLink opens in a new window (London, 2013), 13-29.
Zitzlsperger, Ulrike, (ed.), Gender, Agency and Violence: European Perspectives from Early Modern Times to the Present Day (Newcastle upon Tyne, 2013)
