My well-known body to anatomize : Shakespeare and the drama of dissection

This dissertation examines the plays of Shakespeare in connection with the burgeoning study of human dissection. After considering the history of human dissection in sixteenth-century England, the dissertation explores the popularization of anatomical language and imagery in the works of Shakespeare\u27s contemporaries. Having traced dissection from the anatomical theaters to the dramatic theaters, chapter three offers dissective readings of Shakespeare\u27s plays. Chapter four considers Hamlet as an epistemological echo of the title page of the Fabrica of Vesalius