Description
Book SynopsisThe Tears of Sovereignty is a comparative study of the representation of the concept of sovereignty in paradigmatic plays of early modern English and Spanish drama. It argues that baroque drama produces the critical terms through which contemporary philosophical criticism continues to think through the problems of sovereignty today.
Trade ReviewLorenz masterfully interweaves philosophical, political, sociological, and historical perspectives into his readings of these diverse plays . . .Recommended * —Choice Magazine *
“. . . a highly theorized account of a set of mesmerizing problem plays from Spanish and English theater,which generate a range of insightful new accounts of the operation of the tropes of metaphor, analogy, and allegory in relation to the theatrical image, the Eucharist, and the insignia of power.”
---—Julia Reinhard Lupton, author of Thinking with Shakespeare: Essays on Politics and LifeIn his first book, 'Tears of Sovereignty: Perspectives of Power in Renaissance Drama, Philip Lorenz addresses Spain through inventive political-theological readings of the Jesuit theologian Francisco Suarez and Lope de Vega's 'Life Is a Dream'. The emphasis on Suarez is fresh and urgent, inviting us to think the Catholic question in a counter-reformation and Baroque rather than medieval/archaic frame, and to do so through a substantial, fascination, and under-examined body of texts. * —Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *
“Tears of Sovereignty is a smart, philosophically textured analysis of sovereignty on the seventeenth-century stage.”
---—Graham Hammill, University at Buffalo, SUNY
