Vantage Points: Distorted Vision in Early Modern Tragedy

• In Event: Vision and Its Instruments in Early Modern Literature II

Abstract

In L’Œil surpris, Françoise Siguret posits the existence of a singular ideal perspective from which to view plays, further arguing that this œil du prince is also reflected in the spatial organization of the stage. Her analysis of the frontispiece for La Mariane focuses on the unstable, decentralized figure of Hérode. Other scholars have deconstructed Hérode’s hallucinations. Instead of emblems of his spiritual or psychological blindness, could these not be reframed as a particular type of refracted vision? Indeed, many plays of this period feature moments where a character’s liminal vantage point drastically distorts their vision. This paper will consider the ways in which social disorder in early modern tragedy was thematized in terms of disordered, refracted vision. This study will have implications for larger debates about the relationship between scene and stage between 1580 and 1640 in France, as well as the overall representation of rebellion and social disorder.

Author

• Melanie Elizabeth Bowman, Luther College