ABSTRACT
Shakespeare's early Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus has often been dismissed by critics owing to its unpleasantness and overt cannibalism. This chapter locates Shakespeare's drama within a transnational process of cultural and literary exchanges which contributed to the formation of early modern English culture. It intends to explore, in particular, the significance of the mutual imbrications of Renaissance emblems of the hand and ekphrasis in this play thereby unraveling Shakespeare's skepticism towards the universal and predictable use of the body metaphor in embodied representation. As part of the multicultural Renaissance world, where belief systems were highly fluid, emblem and ekphrasis became important dialogic rhetorical devices in the hands of dramatists like Shakespeare. The chapter discusses the influence and intertextuality of Italian emblem traditions and ekphrasis to highlight the Italian influence and thereby its appropriations in the text. The Renaissance was rich in emblems. In the Italian visual culture, emblem books played a conspicuous role in enhancing an advanced mode of communication.
