Description
Book SynopsisAn examination of the themes of pain and compassion in key Renaissance writers, at a time when religious attitudes to suffering were changing. A deeply original work of scholarship. Through fine close readings of primary and secondary texts, the author offers the fullest account we have of the related phenomena of pain, sympathy, and sensation in early modern culture.Michael Schoenfeldt, John R. Knott, Jr., Professor of English, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor In late medieval Catholicism, pain was seen as a way of imitating Christ, and as an avenue to salvation. During the earlymodern period, Protestant theologians came to reject these assumptions, and attempted to redefine and circumscribe the spiritual meaning of suffering. The rethinking of the meaning of pain during the early modern era is the central theme of this book. The author pays particular attention to how literary writers explored the issue of pain, by placing their work in a broad context of devotional, theological, philosophical and medical texts on suffering. In detailed readings of Alabaster, Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, Lanyer, Spenser, Milton and Montaigne, he shows that early modern culture located the meaning of pain in its capacity to elicit compassion in others - yet the nature of thiscompassion was also fiercely contested. Dr JAN FRANS VAN DIJKHUIZEN is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Leiden.
Trade ReviewTimely and illuminating.... An intelligent and thought-provoking book that opens up many avenues for further research. * MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW *
An excellent and thought-provoking book. * STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1500-1900 *
Wonderfully wide-ranging. ... One wonders why a study of this kind has not appeared earlier. ... Van Dijkhuizen does a consummate job of meeting the more historically focussed requirements of his project while also hinting at further areas of investigation. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *
[This] excellent study of pain and compassion in early modern English literature and culture will be of great interest to all scholars concerned with the relationship between embodiment and its various cultural codings. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Early Modern Religious Discourses of Pain Religious Pain from Alabaster to Donne The Theology of Physical Suffering in Herbert Poetry and the Passion of Christ in Crashaw and Lanyer Pain, Compassion and Community from Spenser to Milton Pain and Compassion in the Essais of Montaigne Afterword Bibliography
