Myths of Renaissance Individualism (Early Modern History: Society and Culture)

The idea that the Renaissance witnessed the emergence of the modern individual remains a powerful myth. In this important new book Martin examines the Renaissance self with attention to both social history and literary theory and offers a new typology of Renaissance selfhood which was at once collective, performative and porous. At the same time, he stresses the layered qualities of the Renaissance self and the salient role of interiority and notions of inwardness in the shaping of identity. Myths of Renaissance Individualism , in short, will interest students not only of history but also of art history, literature, music, philosophy, psychology and religion. "In 1598 a man - branded the Calabrian Charlatan by his opponents - appeared in Venice claiming to be King Sebastian, the Portuguese monarch who disappeared in battle some twenty years before. Over the next five years, the Venetians, the Spanish and the Portuguese wrangled over the true character and identity of the man. Was he a lunatic? Was he an impostor? Was he a messianic king? Eric Olsen uses this strange event to explore Portuguese millenarianism and how a group of Portuguese rebels sought to exploit it to free their nation from Spanish rule. Along the way, he analyzes broader issues in early modern European politics such as the fragility of the state, the function of exemplary justice, the influence of popular beliefs, and the role of rumor."--BOOK JACKET "The Protestant Reformation transformed the funeral more profoundly than any other ritual of the traditional Church. Luther's doctrine of salvation 'by faith alone' led to the death of Purgatory in the Protestant tradition and forced Reformers to re-establish the funeral on a new theological basis. By drawing on anthropological interpretations of death ritual, this study explores the changing relationships between the body, the soul, the living and the dead that shaped the daily encounter with death in Germany from the eve of the Reformation to the rise of Pietism, concluding with a discussion of the spread of honourable nocturnal burial at the end of the seventeenth century."--Jacket

Martin (history, Trinity U.) explores how men and women of the Renaissance experienced and understood the relation of inwardness or interiority, to the vast social, political, cultural, and religious worlds outside themselves. He also considers the more abstract assumptions they held about the self. His conclusion is that four or five hundred years ago, European men and women made assumptions about identity that were radically different from modern assumptions, but that were equally varied and dynamic. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Front Matter....Pages i-x ‘“Individualism” — a Word Unknown to our Ancestors’....Pages 1-20 The Inquisitors’ Questions....Pages 21-40 Spiritual Journeys....Pages 41-61 A Journeymen’s Feast of Fools....Pages 62-82 Possessions....Pages 83-102 The Proffered Heart....Pages 103-122 Myths of Identity — an Essay....Pages 123-133 Back Matter....Pages 135-187 Examining the Renaissance self with attention to both social history and literary theory and offering a different typology of Renaissance selfhood, this book also stresses the layered qualities of the Renaissance self and the salient role of interiority and notions of inwardness in the shaping of identity