Reformations of the body : idolatry, sacrifice, and early modern theater / Jennifer Waldron.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Waldron, Jennifer Elizabeth, 1969-

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

Early modern cultural studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English drama--Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600--History and criticism.

English drama.

Christianity and literature--England--History--16th century.

Christianity and literature.

England.

History.

Theater--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Theater.

Human body in literature.

Idolatry in literature.

Sacrifice in literature.

Physical Description:

xiv, 296 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Summary:

Reformations of the Body establishes new ties between theology and theatricality in the time of Shakespeare, juxtaposing original readings of religious thinkers such as John Calvin with case studies of influential tragedies such as Doctor Faustus and Othello. While current accounts of the Reformation often assume that Protestant iconoclasts devalued sensory experience and bodily praxis, Jennifer Waldron shows how and why the human body and the bodily senses retained sacred value after the Reformation. In readings of scenes of providential revival, bloody pacts with the devil, and sacrificial rites of revenge, she shows how theological problems became tightly bound to the living medium of theater itself. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: reformations of the body

Dead idols and lively images: A genealogy of Protestant iconoclasm

Sacrament and theater: Shakespeare's lawful magic

Theatrical authorship and providential bodies: the case of Doctor Faustus

Revenge, sacrifice, and post-reformation theater: the Spanish tragedy

Shakespeare and revenge: the anthropology of sacrifice in Titus Andronicus and Othello

Virgin martyrs and sacrificial sovereigns: Thomas Dekker's politic bodies

Epilogue: iconoclastic bodies and literary technique: Oldcastle to Milton.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781137030047

1137030046

OCLC:

795759259