The Twenty-First Century: “Trauma, Drama, Conspiracy”

Abstract

“Trauma, Drama, and Conspiracy,” begins with the publication of Katherine Duncan-Jones’ biography of Shakespeare. Although she was composing the book prior to 2001, its publication in the exact same year as 9/11 participated in a dismantling of all binaries, both political and literary, and also helped to alter the simple dual take on the pair as much as the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the London bombings on 7/7 unsettled our notions of “good” and “evil.” Using Trauma Theory as a starting point for my conclusions about the twenty-first century, I show how the relationship of Shakespeare and Marlowe has been upended and re-shaped by current historical and aesthetic pressures. I also show how the climate of conspiracy theories birthed after 9/1, as well as the more recent notion of “belief echoes,” has led to an outbreak of new versions of the old, anti-Stratfordian fever in numerous printed works.