ABSTRACT
This paper considers the grotesquely black humour that runs through the otherwise tragic storyline of Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy, Titus Andronicus, and the strange laughter that is both written into and elicited by it. Not only does the excessive pitch and peculiarly comic representation of the play’s violence suggest a parody of the genre but, in illustrating the senselessness of such brutality, it sheds light on the way in which laughter can erupt as an affective coping mechanism upon witnessing the breakdown of meaning elicited by examples of ineffable pain, suffering and mutilation.
