The Shattering of the Self: Violence, Subjectivity, and Early Modern Texts

by Cynthia Marshall

In The Shattering of the Violence, Subjectivity, and Early Modern Texts , Cynthia Marshall reconceptualizes the place and function of violence in Renaissance literature. During the Renaissance an emerging concept of the autonomous self within art, politics, religion, commerce, and other areas existed in tandem with an established, popular sense of the self as fluid, unstable, and volatile. Marshall examines an early modern fascination with erotically charged violence to show how texts of various kinds allowed temporary release from an individualism that was constraining. Scenes such as Gloucester's blinding and Cordelia's death in King Lear or the dismemberment and sexual violence depicted in Titus Andronicus allowed audience members not only a release but a "shattering"―as opposed to an affirmation―of the self. Marshall draws upon close readings of Shakespearean plays, Petrarchan sonnets, John Foxe's Acts and Monuments of the Christian Martyrs, and John Ford's The Broken Heart to successfully address questions of subjectivity, psychoanalytic theory, and identity via a cultural response to art. Timely in its offering of an account that is both historically and psychoanalytically informed, The Shattering of the Self argues for a renewed attention to the place of fantasy in this literature and will be of interest to scholars working in Renaissance and early modern studies, literary theory, gender studies, and film theory.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Amelia.S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cynthia Marshall’s The Shattering of the Self: Violence, Subjectivity, and Early Modern Texts is a profound and intellectually daring work that redefines how readers understand violence, identity, and artistic expression in Renaissance literature. By examining the interplay between the emerging autonomous self and its volatile, destabilized counterpart, Marshall offers a compelling argument about how early modern texts especially Shakespeare’s tragedies used violence as both a psychological and cultural release.

What stands out most is her fusion of literary analysis with psychoanalytic insight. The book’s deep engagement with scenes of bodily and emotional fragmentation like those in King Lear and Titus Andronicus reveals how violence becomes a mirror through which audiences confront the instability of their own subjectivity. Marshall’s work bridges theory and emotion with precision, making it essential reading for scholars of literature, identity, and cultural psychology.