Caesar’s Body in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Sacralization and De-sacralization of Power
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Daniela Carpi
Daniela Carpi is Full Professor of English Literature at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona. Her fields of research are Renaissance theatre, critical theory, postmodernism, law and literature, literature and science, literature and visual arts. She collaborates with Ombre Corte in Verona, where she edits a section “Culture” devoted to comparative criticism and a section “Agon” on law and culture; and with De Gruyter in Berlin, where she edits (together with professor Klaus Stierstorfer) a series on “Law and Literature.” She has founded the Associazione Italiana di Diritto e Letteratura (AIDEL), which she presides, and is a member of the Academia Europaea. Among her most recent publications:
Bioethics and Biolaw through Literature (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2011) andLiminal Discourses. Subliminal Tensions in Law and Literature , ed. with Jeanne Gaakeer (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2013).
Abstract
In Julius Caesar the wounds on the body of the “king” are like mouths that cry out the condemnation of the violation of power and of a cosmic order. The divine body of the king has a sacred hue as he represents God on earth, thus the killing of Caesar can be connected to the killing of Christ. Caesar in the text has many Christological connotations. The killing of Caesar has the emblematic character of a cry against the violation of legitimate power: the body is at first concealed (Caesar’s mantel hides his corpse) then exhibited (when Antony uncovers it) and sacralized so as to make this catastrophe symbolic of an adhesion to legitimate power. Antony makes Caesar’s body the voice of power: on one hand it has the function of stressing the persuasive power of Antony’s words, on the other hand Antony transforms the body into a spiritual icon in order to reach his aim of denouncing the illegitimate subversion of the conspirators.
About the author
Daniela Carpi is Full Professor of English Literature at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona. Her fields of research are Renaissance theatre, critical theory, postmodernism, law and literature, literature and science, literature and visual arts. She collaborates with Ombre Corte in Verona, where she edits a section “Culture” devoted to comparative criticism and a section “Agon” on law and culture; and with De Gruyter in Berlin, where she edits (together with professor Klaus Stierstorfer) a series on “Law and Literature.” She has founded the Associazione Italiana di Diritto e Letteratura (AIDEL), which she presides, and is a member of the Academia Europaea. Among her most recent publications: Bioethics and Biolaw through Literature (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2011) and Liminal Discourses. Subliminal Tensions in Law and Literature, ed. with Jeanne Gaakeer (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2013).
©2015 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Focus
- Focus: Voices of Power/Power of Voices
- Voices of Spectators and Audience Power
- “There Were No Longer Any Laws”: Voices of Authority, Complicity, and Resistance in Totalitarian Dystopias and Holocaust Imaginings
- Caesar’s Body in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Sacralization and De-sacralization of Power
- Legal Oracularism and Theological Prophetism. Fleshly Silences Across Memories and Traditions
- “What Is Royalty Without a Voice?” The Performance of Power in The King’s Speech
- Is There Voice Without Law? On The Road
- Voice, Incarnation and the United States Supreme Court
- Disputes and the Differend: Literary Strategies to Say the Unspeakable
- The Working Class Goes to the Movies: Labour Law and Thatcherism in British Films
- War in Words: The Tricycle Theatre’s Re-voicing of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry
- Research
- Legal Systemology and the Geopolitics of Roman Law: A Response to Stuart Elden’s Critique of Carl Schmitt’s Spatial Ontology
- Speech and Graphomena: The Power of Apuleius’ Words in Court and in Translation
- Book Review
- Mireille Hildebrandt and Jeanne Gaakeer: Human Law and Computer Law: Comparative Perspectives
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Focus
- Focus: Voices of Power/Power of Voices
- Voices of Spectators and Audience Power
- “There Were No Longer Any Laws”: Voices of Authority, Complicity, and Resistance in Totalitarian Dystopias and Holocaust Imaginings
- Caesar’s Body in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: Sacralization and De-sacralization of Power
- Legal Oracularism and Theological Prophetism. Fleshly Silences Across Memories and Traditions
- “What Is Royalty Without a Voice?” The Performance of Power in The King’s Speech
- Is There Voice Without Law? On The Road
- Voice, Incarnation and the United States Supreme Court
- Disputes and the Differend: Literary Strategies to Say the Unspeakable
- The Working Class Goes to the Movies: Labour Law and Thatcherism in British Films
- War in Words: The Tricycle Theatre’s Re-voicing of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry
- Research
- Legal Systemology and the Geopolitics of Roman Law: A Response to Stuart Elden’s Critique of Carl Schmitt’s Spatial Ontology
- Speech and Graphomena: The Power of Apuleius’ Words in Court and in Translation
- Book Review
- Mireille Hildebrandt and Jeanne Gaakeer: Human Law and Computer Law: Comparative Perspectives
