The Rape of Lucretia
The Rape of Lucretia
This chapter looks closely at the dominant female character of the first three seasons of the series—Lucretia, the wife of the gladiatorial ludus master Batiatus. It maintains that Lucretia's sexual choices and, in particular, her relationship to the act of rape as portrayed in the series present an ongoing reflection on the depiction of rape in modern historical fiction to assert power and to demean women. As the chapter argues, the question of rape in Spartacus is fraught with issues of power and its abuse, and it exposes how the series creators make a significant and meaningful distinction between implicit rape, which is depicted non-violently and often performed silently by extras, and the violent, explicitly abusive rape of named characters.
Keywords: Lucretia, rape, Lucretia's sexual choices, power abuse, implicit rape, explicit rape, modern historical fiction
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