William Shakespeare and John Donne
Subtitle: Stages of the Soul in Early Modern English Poetry
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2019
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9781526133298
Subjects: Donne, john, 1572-1631; Shakespeare, william, 1564-1616, criticism and interpretation
Description: This study analyses concepts and representations of the soul in the poetry of William Shakespeare and John Donne. It shows how the soul becomes a linking element between the genres of poetry and drama, and how poetry becomes dramatic whenever the soul is at its focus. This double movement can be observed in Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece and Donne's Holy Sonnets: in these texts, the connection between interiority and performance, psychology and religious self-care can be found, which is central to the understanding of early modern drama and its characteristic development of the soliloquy. The study thus offers a new reading of the poems by Shakespeare and Donne by analysing them, in different ways, as staged dialogues within the soul. It contributes to research on the soliloquy as much as on concepts of inwardness during the early modern period. The book is aimed at readers studying early modern literature and culture.