Mortal Thoughts - Religion, Secularity, & Identity in Shakespeare Early Modern Culture

Mortal Thoughts is a study of the question of human identity in the early modern period. It examines literature alongside emerging forms of life writing, life drawing, and self-portraits and considers portrayals of mortality and the moment of death.

List of contents

• Introduction: Secularization and Identity


• 1: The Mortal Self: Dürer and Montaigne


• 2: The Reformed Conscience: Thomas More


• 3: The Writer as Martyr: Cranmer and Foxe


• 4: Public Oaths and Private Selves: More, Foxe, and Shakespeare


• 5: Soliloquy and Secularization: Shakespeare


• 6: Hamlet's Luck: Shakespeare and the Renaissance Bible


• 7: Freedom, Suicide, and Selfhood: Montaigne, Shakespeare, Donne


• 8: Soft Selves: Adam, Eve, and the Art of Embodiement: Dürer to Milton


• Bibliography

About the author

Brian Cummings is Anniversary Professor at the University of York in the Department of English & Related Literature. He previously taught at Trinity College, Cambridge and the University of Sussex, and has held Visiting Fellowships in California, Munich, and Oxford. From 2009-2012 he held a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship. He is the author of The Literary Culture of the Reformation: Grammar and Grace (2002) and editor of The Book of Common Prayer: the Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (2011), both published by OUP.

Summary

Mortal Thoughts is a study of the question of human identity in the early modern period. It examines literature alongside emerging forms of life writing, life drawing, and self-portraits and considers portrayals of mortality and the moment of death.

Additional text

Cummings most certainly succeeds in writing great criticism: his most stunning readings immerse us in the intricate workings of a simple gesture like the hand thrust into fire in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments or the naked body emerging from a dark door in Duerer's enigmatic self-portrait.

Product details

• Authors: Brian Cummings, Brian (Anniversary Professor Cummings, Brian B Cummings, Brian B. Cummings, Professor Brian Cummings
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2018
• EAN: 9780198831181
• ISBN: 978-0-19-883118-1
• No. of pages: 384
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Europe, RELIGION / History, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Renaissance, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / General, History of Religion, 17th century, c 1600 to c 1699, Social and cultural history, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, 16th century, c 1500 to c 1599, c 1500 to c 1600, C 1600 To C 1700, Literary studies: c 1400 to c 1600