ABSTRACT
Dramatizations of decadent Rome in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Jonson’s Sejanus and Fletcher’s The Virgin Martyr present vivid explorations of Renaissance notions of alterity while still exploiting the value of death as entertainment. 1 These tragedies begin by carefully constructing a dichotomy between moral and civilized Self and violent and decadent Other but they inevitably conclude by destabilizing this dichotomy, by blurring the boundaries between these poles.
