Horror on the Early Modern Stage

Early modern English theatre provides countless examples of the tropes and feelings we associate with the horror genre. Depictions of obscenity and violence designed to elicit a mixture of loathing, fear, repugnance, shock, awe, and desire in their audiences abound. From the bodily mutilations of Titus Andronicus, to the demonic, ghostly, and psychological terrors of Macbeth and Hamlet, to the sensory shocks of torture and imprisonment within The Duchess of Malfi. This collection of essays argues that the horror genre as we know it should be extended back to the 16th century to include classic early modern plays from A Midsummer Night's Dream to The Witch of Edmonton.

Contributors plot a new theory of horror through its roots as a conscious and complex generic mode in the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century. Drawing together essays on topics such as bodily torture and experimentation, necrophilia and decomposition, psychological and supernatural torment, scholars critically engage with categories such as tragedy, comedy, parody, and folk horror. The volume offers new interpretations of both famous and obscure early modern plays, and places them in conversation with contemporary horror films like Midsommar, The Wicker Man, The Substance, and the works of David Cronenberg, providing a new route into the burgeoning field of early modern horror for scholars and students.