The Self in Early Modern Literature: For the Common GoodDuquesne University Press, 2007 - 384 pages This study is a response to a continuing debate stimulated primarily by cultural materialist and new historicist claims that the early modern self was decentered and fragmented by forces in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. The current study enters this debate by rejecting claims of such radical discontinuity characterizing a "contingent" and "provisional" self incapable of unified subjectivity. The counterargument in The Self in Early Modern Literary Studies: For the Common Good is that the intersection of Protestant vocation and Christian civic humanism, in support of the common good, was a stabilizing factor in early modern construction of self that resisted historical and cultural dislocations. The theoretical issues at stake are examined in an introductory chapter, followed by chapters discussing central aspects of five major early modern writers whose works variously incorporate elements in Protestant vocation and Christian civic humanism. These five writers have been chosen both for their importance in the English literary canon and for their respective roles in early modern culture: "Spenser: Persons Serving Gloriana"; "Shakespeare's Henriad: Calling the Heir Apparent"; "'Ego Videbo': Donne and the Vocational Self"; "Jonson and the Truth of Envy"; "Milton: Self-Defense and the Drama of Blame." The study ends with a brief postscript on the Bacon family in whom the combined forces of Protestant vocation and Christian civic humanism were uniquely expressed. |
Contents
Persons Serving Gloriana | 50 |
A discipline of ensamples | 55 |
Gender in the English Person | 77 |
Copyright | |
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actions addresses appropriate assumes attack audience authority blame body calling Cambridge Christ Christian claim command common conception continuing court criticism cultural defense defined desire discipline discussion divine Donne Donne's duties earlier early modern Elizabeth Elizabethan enemy English Epigrams example experience expressed father fear follows friends friendship further given God's habit Henry honor human humanist important includes individual intention interpretation John Jonson's judgment justice king later leads learning less letters lives Lord Milton's mind misogyny moral mutual narrative nature necessary notes notion obedience person play poem poet poetic poetry political praise presence Protestant Queene readers reason Reformed relation remains represents requires responsibility role royal Selden sense serve Shakespeare shared social soul speaks Spenser's spiritual stand suggests thought tion true truth turn understanding University Press virtue virtuous vocation