Traumatized Queens in Tamburlaine , Part One and Dido, Queen of Carthage

Abstract: The insight of Mathew R. Martin that Christopher Marlowe’s ‘tragedies are trauma narratives’ followed readings of Shakespeare plays in the light of trauma theory by scholars such as Deborah Willis and Heather Hirschfield. This article combines Willis’s suggestion of flashbacks and Hirschfield’s attention to haunting, focusing on moments of madness in Tamburlaine the Great , Part One and Dido, Queen of Carthage . Although both of the scenes discussed here are very much about individual trauma, I argue that they speak too of broader, collective experiences.