Pleasure And Gender In The Writings Of Thomas More: Pursuing The Common Weal Project Muse Upcc Books

A prominent scholar of the life and work of Thomas More, A. D. Cousins goes beyond the scope of existing studies to focus primarily and closely on More’s interpretations of the major cultural categories informing his view of the common weal, the common good, and correlatively on the (good) state. Thus, this study identifies categories that relate to the individual in civil life, categories that are pervasive and interconnected within More’s nonpolemical writings—most specifically, Cousins focuses on pleasure and gender, considering chance, friendship, and role-play throughout. Exploring pleasure and gender in relation to issues of the common good and of the (good) state, More probes how people make sense of chance (and, alternatively, how they do not), how friendship works interpersonally and beyond national boundaries, and what roles people play (as well as to what roles they can aspire). As Cousins asserts, pursuing the common weal was for More both necessary and desirable, and he himself pursued this on behalf of his country, the republic of letters, and the Church Militant. argues that, from what appears to be his earliest nonpolemical work, __Pageant Verses__, until what we know to be his last, __De Tristitia Christi__, More sees the will to pleasure as central to the experience of being human: as a primary human impulse or, at the least, a compelling power within the human consciousness. In tracing how More examines the will to pleasure in our lives, Cousins also examines More’s recurrent concern with gender’s inflecting and expressing this desire. More clearly views gender as potentially restrictive or empowering in many respects, which is discussed in relation to several of More’s texts. Analyzes The Ways In Which Thomas More's Writings Treat The Major Cultural Categories Of The Individual In Civil Life -- Including Pleasure And Gender, Chance, Friendship, And Role Play -- As Central To More's Own Views On The Common Weal, The Common Good, And The Good State--provided By Publisher. Pleasure, Gender, And The Pursuit Of The Common Weal -- Chance, Gender, Pleasure, And The Pursuit Of The Common Weal -- Being A Woman, Pleasure, And The Pursuit Of Whose Common Weal? -- Masculinity, Friendship, Pleasure, And The Pursuit Of Which Common Weal? -- Role-play, Masculinity, Pleasure : In And Beyond Pursuit Of The Common Weal. A.d. Cousins. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.