Stephanie Schnabel

The theme of rape in elizabethan and jacobean literary texts Stephanie Schnabel

Examination Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Dusseldorf "Heinrich Heine" (Anglistik IV), 53 entries in the bibliography, language: English, comment: This study focus on the poems written by W. Shakespeare and T. Middleton and the play by T. Heywood, which all deal with the rape of Lucrece. The analysis considers their literary predecessors from Antiquity and the Middle Ages as well as the contemporary circumstances of the three texts and the outcomes for the writers before the text are analysed in depth. , abstract: Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Gründungsmythos der römischen Republik, d.h. mit der Vergewaltigung der Lucretia durch Tarquin, als literarischem Motiv. Obwohl auch Texte aus der Antike und dem Mittelalter betrachtet werden, in denen dieser Mythos verarbeitet wurde, liegt der Schwerpunkt auf drei Texten (zwei Gedichten und einem Theaterstück) der englischen Renaissance: William Shakespeares "Rape of Lucrece", Thomas Middletons "The Ghost of Lucrece" und Thomas Heywoods "Rape of Lucrece". Sie werden erst einzeln vorgestellt und dann kontrastiv mit einander verglichen. This study deals with the founding myth of the Roman republic, that is the rape of Lucrece by Tarquin, as a literary motive. Although also texts from Antiquity as well as the Middle Ages are considered, the main focus is centred on three texts (two poems and one play) of the English Renaissance period: these are William Shakespeare's "Rape of Lucrece", Thomas Middleton's "The Ghost of Lucrece" and Thomas Heywood's "Rape of Lucrece". They are first analysed in depth one after the other before a contrastive comparison takes place.