Title: Selfish gifts : the politics of exchange and English courtly literature, 1580-1628 /
Authors: Scott, Alison V., 1974-
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press,
Year: 2006
Subjects: English literature History and criticism; Gifts in literature.; Gifts Great Britain History; Gifts Great Britain History; Gifts Political aspects Great Britain.; Courts and courtiers in literature.; Great Britain Court and courtiers History; Great Britain Court and courtiers History
Abstract: "Engaging with a wide range of texts on gift-theory, extending from Seneca's De Beneficiis to Derrida's Given Time, Selfish Gifts examines the importance of gift ethics and the rhetoric of honorable giving to the literature of late Elizabeth and early Stuart England. It demonstrates that the idea of the freely given and disiniterested gift shaped the language of early modern clientage, along with literary representations of patrons and patronage systems during this period.
Contents: Nonreciprocation and female rule : The Elizabethan context -- "[A] mutual render, only me for thee" : "True" gifts in Shakespeare's sonnets -- Competitive gifts and strategic exchange at the Jacobean court -- Gifts for the Somerset wedding -- "Fortune's darling, king's content" : The Duke of Buckingham as gift problem.