Book Reviews: Shakespeare et le désordre du monde, the Shakespeare First Folios: A Descriptive Catalogue, the Life of William Shakespeare: A Critical Biography, Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia and the Invention of English Literature, the Troublesome Reign of John, King of England, Edmund Spenser's War on Lord Burghley, the Disguised Ruler in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, Ovidian Myth and Sexual Deviance in Early Modern English Literature, the Material Letter in Early Modern England: Manuscript Letters and the Culture and Practices of Letter-Writing, 1512–1635, the Material Letter in Early Modern England: Manuscript Letters and the Culture and Practices of Letter-Writing, 1512–1635

2012 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-104
Author(s):  
Jean-Christophe Mayer ◽  
Noriko Summoto ◽  
R. S. White ◽  
Danielle Clarke ◽  
Charles Whitworth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Sexual Deviance ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
Early Modern English Literature

The Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Cefalu
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
Religious Poetry ◽  
Richard Crashaw ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
Early Modern English Literature ◽  
Pauline Theology ◽  
Literature And Theology

The Johannine Renaissance in Early Modern English Literature and Theology argues that the Fourth Gospel and First Epistle of Saint John the Evangelist were so influential during the early modern period in England as to share with Pauline theology pride of place as leading apostolic texts on matters Christological, sacramental, pneumatological, and political. The book argues further that, in several instances, Johannine theology is more central than both Pauline theology and the Synoptic theology of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, particularly with regard to early modern polemicizing on the Trinity, distinctions between agape and eros, and the ideologies of radical dissent, especially the seventeenth-century antinomian challenge of free grace to traditional Puritan Pietism. In particular, early modern religious poetry, including works by Robert Southwell, George Herbert, John Donne, Richard Crashaw, Thomas Traherne, and Anna Trapnel, embraces a distinctive form of Johannine devotion that emphasizes the divine rather than human nature of Christ; the belief that salvation is achieved more through revelation than objective atonement and expiatory sin; a realized eschatology; a robust doctrine of assurance and comfort; and a stylistic and rhetorical approach to representing these theological features that often emulates John’s mode of discipleship misunderstanding and dramatic irony. Early modern Johannine devotion assumes that religious lyrics often express a revelatory poetics that aims to clarify, typically through dramatic irony, some of the deepest mysteries of the Fourth Gospel and First Epistle.

Doubtful Readers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin A. McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
William Shakespeare ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
English Literature ◽  
John Donne ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
Aemilia Lanyer ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Early Modern Poetry ◽  
Literary Histories ◽  
Over Time

Doubtful Readers: Print, Poetry, and the Reading Public in Early Modern England focuses on early modern publishers’ efforts to identify and accommodate new readers of verse that had previously been restricted to particular social networks in manuscript. Focusing on the period between the maturing of the market for printed English literature in the 1590s and the emergence of the professional poet following the Restoration, this study shows that poetry was shaped by—and itself shaped—strong print publication traditions. By reading printed editions of poems by William Shakespeare, Aemilia Lanyer, John Donne, and others, this book shows how publishers negotiated genre, gender, social access, reputation, literary knowledge, and the value of English literature itself. It uses literary, historical, bibliographical, and quantitative evidence to show how publishers’ strategies changed over time. Ultimately, Doubtful Readers argues that although—or perhaps because—publishers’ interpretive and editorial efforts are often elided in studies of early modern poetry, their interventions have had an enduring impact on our canons, texts, and literary histories.

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