'Figures of Exclusion' in Mucedorus (c. 1591). Issue 1 (7th January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thom, Alexander
• Is Part Of: Law and literature. Volume 33:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 49
• Page End: 72
• Publication Date: 2021-01-07
• Subjects: Mucedorus -- Bremo -- outlawry -- sovereignty -- Elizabethan drama -- Giorgio Agamben; Law and literature -- Periodicals; Droit et littérature -- Périodiques; Law and literature; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 340.05
• DOI: 10.1080/1535685X.2020.1726655
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1535-685X

Abstract

Abstract: The anonymously authored Mucedorus was the most popular printed play-text in Renaissance England. A critical consensus has condemned the play as a vulgar romance with conservative overtones. Through a close reading of the banished shepherd-prince and the cannibalistic outlaw-king, Bremo, I argue that the play instead stages a disturbing encounter between two figures of sovereign exclusion, whose differences collapse into imitation. This mirroring conflict participates within the play's provocative depiction of other dissolving antitheses: between order and chaos, civilisation and animality, reason and violence.