Renaissance Tropologies: The Cultural Imagination of Early Modern England (Medieval and Renaissance Literary Studies)

Twelve Essays By Renaissance Scholars Extend The Theoretical Analysis And Application Of Four Tropes -- Theater, Moment, Journey, And Ambassadorship -- In Examining Works By Shakespeare, Donne, And Others As A Way Of Providing Access Into The Thought And Worldview Of Early Modern England--provided By Publisher. 1. Rex Absconditus: Justice, Presence, And Legitimacy In Measure For Measure / Gale H. Carrithers Jr. And James D. Hardy Jr. -- 2. Salvific Moments In John Donne's Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions / Eric C. Brown -- 3. Donne And The State Of Exception / Greg Kneidel -- 4. Troping Religious Identity: Circumcision And Transubstantiation In Donne's Sermons / Jeanne Shami -- 5. Vaughan's Life Of Paulinus: Recharting The Royalist Journey / Susannah Monta -- 6. Journey And Ambassadorship In The Marriage Literature For Mary Tudor (1496-1533) / A. E. B. Coldiron -- 7. Eucharistic Semiotics And The Representational Formulas Of Donne's Ambassadors / Alexandra Mills Block -- 8. Donne And Diplomacy / Hugh Adlington -- 9. Dangerous Liaisons: Spider Love In Donne's Twicknam Garden / Albert C. Labriola -- 10. Mirror Tropes And Renaissance Poetry / Ilona Bell -- 11. The Ars Longa Trope In A Sublunary World / Kate Narveson -- 12. Habits Of Thought, Structures Of Feeling / Stephen Pender. Edited By Jeanne Shami. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 309-363) And Index. Tropes provide access into habits of thought and worldviews-they express a climate of opinion and a hermeneutical context. Focusing on the textual activity of major cultural tropes, this study demonstrates the ways in which they enunciate and transform the cultural imagination on matters of love and power in the world, the body politic, and the rising sphere of personal life in early modern England. In twelve essays, prominent Renaissance scholars extend the theoretical analysis and application of the four tropes identified by Gale Carrithers and James theatre, moment, journey, and ambassadorship. Renaissance tropologies and habits of thought are here demonstrated through exegesis of the works of Shakespeare, Vaughan, and especially John Donne, whose writings, because they explore the most provocative issues of his day, are a lens through which one can understand the surrounding culture. The text itself is organised around the four tropes, and their cross-disciplinary approach to cultural phenomenon is part of the move toward a more fully historicised rhetorical analysis of texts.