Losing Face : Shame, Society and the Self in Early Modern England

This book is a study of shame in English society in the two centuries between c.1550 and c.1750, demonstrating the ubiquity and powerful hold it had on contemporaries over the entire era. Using insights drawn from the social sciences, the book investigates multiple meanings and manifestations of shame in everyday lives and across private and public domains, exploring the practice and experience of shame in devotional life and family relations, amid social networks, and in communities or the public at large. The book pays close attention to variations and distinctive forms of shame, while also uncovering recurring patterns, a spectrum ranging from punitive, exclusionary and coercive shame through more conciliatory, lenient and inclusive forms. Placing these divergent forms in the context of the momentous social and cultural shifts that unfolded over the course of the era, the book challenges perceptions of the waning of shame in the transition from early modern to modern times, arguing instead that whereas some modes of shame diminished or disappeared, others remained vital, were reformulated and vastly enhanced. This book is a study of shame in English society in the two centuries between c.1550 and c.1750, demonstrating the ubiquity and powerful hold it had on contemporaries over the entire era. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 10 Approaches to shame 14 Shame and attendant emotions 15 Shame, honour, pride 16 Shame and guilt 17 Shame and embarrassment 18 Shame and humiliation 18 Structure and themes 19 Notes 21 Chapter 1: Constructions of shame 24 Manners, honour, morality 25 Civility, courage, and masculinity 33 Body constitution and gender 36 Shame on the stage 41 Sin and salvation 46 Conclusion 51 Notes 53 Chapter 2: Puritans and the experience of shame 59 All-consuming punitive shame 60 Strategies of mitigation 66 Oscillating between punitive and redemptive shame 69 Benign shame, inward light 75 Conclusion 79 Notes 81 Chapter 3: Family, networks, and shame 86 Childhood memories of humiliation and shame 87 Model letters, polite shame 90 Parental shaming and the family bond 93 Honour, bonding, and interpersonal ties 97 Women’s letters and shame 105 Conclusion 108 Notes 110 Chapter 4: Commercial enterprise and exchange 114 Damaged reputations 115 Honour, morality, proficiency 120 Friendship and the personalization of shame 127 Shame and formal litigation 133 Merchant shame, Protestant shame 136 Signals of trust 138 Conclusion 140 Notes 142 Chapter 5: Communities as sites of shame 146 Communal shaming 147 Inferiors shaming superiors 152 The shamed poor 156 The penal system and shame 164 Conclusion 169 Notes 171 Chapter 6: Crime narratives and shame 176 The amplification of punitive shame 177 Repentance and redemptive shame 182 Defiance of shame 187 Bounded shame, inclusion, self-respect 190 Conclusion 198 Notes 200 Chapter 7: Transformations of shame 203 Shameful incivility, class, race 204 Sin, sexuality, enlightened shame 208 Print, satire, and public shame 214 Honour, pride, and shame 221 Conclusion 226 Notes 229 Chapter 8: Conclusion: Early modern and modern shame 235 Notes 242 Bibliography 244 Archival sources 244 British Library, London (BL) 244 London Metropolitan Archives, London (LMA) 244 Printed primary sources 244 Secondary sources 248 Index 259 seventeenth,century;,sixteenth,century;,early,modern,England;,shaming;,shame seventeenth century,sixteenth century,early modern England,shaming,shame "This book is a study of shame in English society in the two centuries between c.1550 and c.1750, demonstrating the ubiquity and powerful hold it had on contemporaries over the entire era. Placing these divergent forms in the context of the momentous social and cultural shifts that unfolded over the course of the era, the book challenges perceptions of the waning of shame in the transition from early modern to modern times, arguing instead that whereas some modes of shame diminished or disappeared, others remained vital, were reformulated and vastly enhanced"-- Provided by publisher