Discovering the Subject in Renaissance England
Discovering the Subject in Renaissance England
When Hamlet complains that Guildenstern "would pluck out the heart of my mystery," he imagines an encounter that recurs insistently in the discourses of early modern England: the struggle by one man to discover the secrets in another's heart. Elizabeth Hanson examines the records of state torture, plays by Shakespeare and Jonson, "cony-catching" pamphlets and Francis Bacon's philosophical writing to demonstrate a reconceptualizing of the "subject" in both the political and philosophical sense of the term.
- Historical re-examination of the key theoretical concept of subjectivity in Renaissance literature and history
- Important implications for this theme in Shakespeare, Jonson, Francis Bacon
- Includes more unusual texts e.g. state torture records
- Offers new understanding of the role of medieval influences in shaping ideas of selfhood in the Renaissance
Reviews & endorsements
"Elizabeth Hanson's compelling study provides that intellectual fascination characteristic of deconstructive tactics adroitly executed, particularly those of the 'metaphysical' stamp which yoke through rhetorical violenc what habits of categorical logic keep distinct and may render as contraries." Michael Dixon, Letters in Canada
Product details
November 2008Paperback
9780521090711
208 pages
229 × 152 × 12 mm
0.31kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. Torture and truth
- 2. Brothers of the state
- 3. Authors and others
- 4. Francis Bacon and the discovering subject
- Notes.
