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Percy Bysshe Shelley's The Cenci presents the case of Beatrice Cenci, a woman martyred at the crossroads of incest and parricide. The play's divergence from the generic form of classical tragedy has important implications for understanding how shifts in the logic of sovereignty necessitated a reimagining of tragedy for a secular age. By first applying Walter Benjamin's analysis of the representation of sovereignty in baroque drama to The Cenci , this essay suggests how Marzio, a relatively minor character, potentially opens up a logical space within the concept of sovereignty through which a new kind of political work can emerge.

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After describing how states of exception are understood differently by T.S. Eliot and his German contemporary Carl Schmitt, this essay draws upon recent discussions concerning cinema and literature to trace how The Waste Land , by disrupting networks that normally capture and coordinate conviction, helps us see that the way we frame things matters.