Shame and shamelessness are subject to different conditions for their enactment: While shame manifests bodily what the individual wants to hide, shamelessness by contrast appears as ostentation. However, both have in common the status of the staged and perceived boundary violation. From this action-oriented perspective, the essays in this interdisciplinary book explore the different forms of staging and functions of shame and shamelessness in literature, art, theater and the social communication of the Early Modern Age.