Abstract
Cahill revises traditional understandings of affect in early modern history plays by calling attention to how they engender disorienting temporalities through their appeals to the sensorium. Drawing on affect and performance theory, she shows how Marlowe’s The Massacre at Paris creates a visceral sensation of the ongoing presence of the past. Central to this argument is her observation that Marlowe’s play enacts the etymological origins of the word “massacre” through hunting tropes and animal-derived stage properties (skins, blood, and flesh) that represent the mass killing of the Huguenots. Ultimately, by illuminating how affective intensities arise in Marlowe’s play when human bodies converge with the signifiers of animal death, she argues for an understanding of early modern playgoing as a profoundly immersive experience.
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Cahill, P. (2017). The Feel of the Slaughterhouse: Affective Temporalities and Marlowe’s The Massacre at Paris . In: Bailey, A., DiGangi, M. (eds) Affect Theory and Early Modern Texts. Palgrave Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56126-8_8
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