Description
Book SynopsisContributing to the histories of genre, embodiment and vitality, this study shows the impact of Aristotelian and Cartesian conceptions of humanness on works by Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton and Sidney. Sullivan shows how, through the representation of sleep, epic and romance model the distinctive relationships between man, plant and animal.
Trade Review'This is a major new study with wide ranging implications for a variety of early modern interests - in the contested category of the human, in the ecological place of the human body in relation to its environment, in the legacy of Aristotelianism against the advent of Cartesianism, and in the relations between epic and romance.' Gail Paster, Folger Shakespeare Library
'… a scholarly, intelligent and provocative study that raises many important questions about the relationship between genre and content that are certain to invite further debate.' Richard A. McCabe, Milton Quarterly
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Aristotelian Vitality Ascendant: 1. 'Both plant and beast together': temperance, vitality and the romance alternative in Spenser's Bower of Bliss; 2. Sleeping minds: romance, affect and environment in Sidney's The Old Arcadia; 3. Sleep, history and 'life indeed' in Shakespeare's 1 and 2 Henry IV and Henry V; Part II. Aristotelian Vitality Embattled: 4. 'From the root springs lighter the green stalk': vegetality and humanness in Milton's Paradise Lost; Part III. Aristotelian Vitality Undead: 5. 'Desperate sloth, miscalled philosophy': Descartes and the post-Aristotelian romance episode in Dryden's All for Love; Coda: beyond undeath.
