Employing psychoanalysis, trauma theory, and materialist perspectives, this book examines Shakespeare's appropriations of Ovid's poetry in his Roman poems and plays. It argues that Shakespeare uses Ovid to explore violence, trauma, and virtus - the traumatic effects of aggression, sadomasochism, and the shifting notions of selfhood and masculinity.

Acknowledgments Introduction PART I: LOVE'S WOUND: VIOLENCE, TRAUMA, AND OVIDIAN TRANSFORMATION IN SHAKESPEARE'S ROMAN POEMS AND PLAYS 1. The Origin of Love: Ovidian Lovesickness and Trauma in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis 2. Shakespeare's Perverse Astraea, Martyr'd Philomel, and Lamenting Hecuba: Ovid, Sadomasochism, and Trauma in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus 3. Dido and Aeneas 'Metamorphis'd': Ovid, Marlowe, and the Masochistic Scenario in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra PART II: TRANSFORMING BODIES: TRAUMA, VIRTUS, AND THE LIMITS OF NEO-STOICISM IN SHAKESPEARE'S ROMAN POEMS AND PLAYS 4. 'A wretched image bound': Neo-Stoicism, Trauma, and the Dangers of the Bounded Self in Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece 5. Bleeding Martyrs: The Body of the Tyrant/Saint, the Limits of 'Constancy,' and the Extremity of the Passions in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar 6. 'One whole wound': Virtus, Vulnerability, and the Emblazoned Male Body in Shakespeare's Coriolanus Coda: Philomela's Song: Transformations of Ovid, Trauma, and Masochism in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Cymbeline Bibliography Index?