Early Modern Asceticism: Literature, Religion, and Austerity in the English Renaissance Contributor(s): McGrath, Patrick J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1487505329 ISBN-13: 9781487505325 Publisher: University of Toronto Press OUR PRICE: $76.00 Product Type: Hardcover Published: October 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Renaissance - Philosophy | History & Surveys - Renaissance - Religion | Christianity - Literature & The Arts |
Dewey: 820.938 |
LCCN: 2019457338 |
Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (4.85 lbs) 248 pages |
Themes: - Religious Orientation - Christian |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: In discussions of the works of Donne, Milton, Marvell, and Bunyan, Early Modern Asceticism shows how conflicting approaches to asceticism animate depictions of sexuality, subjectivity, and embodiment in early modern literature and religion. The book challenges the perception that the Renaissance marks a decisive shift in attitudes towards the body, sex, and the self. In early modernity, self-respect was a Satanic impulse that had to be annihilated - the body was not celebrated, but beaten into subjection - and, feeling circumscribed by sexual desire, ascetics found relief in pain, solitude, and deformity. On the basis of this austerity, Early Modern Asceticism questions the ease with which scholarship often elides the early and the modern. |
Contributor Bio(s): McGrath, Patrick J.: - Patrick J. McGrath is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. |