The Return of Theory in Early Modern English Studies : Tarrying with the Subjunctive

"This collection looks at the growing rapprochement between contemporary theory and early modern English literary-cultural studies. With sections on posthumanism and cognitive science, political theology, and rematerialism and performance, the essays incorporate recent theoretical inquiries into new readings of early modern texts"-- Front Matter....Pages i-xv Tarrying with the Subjunctive, an Introduction....Pages 1-17 Front Matter....Pages 19-19 A Paltry ‘Hoop of Gold’: Semantics and Systematicity in Early Modern Studies....Pages 21-47 If: Lear’s Feather and the Staging of Science....Pages 48-68 Ghosting the Subjunctive: Perceptual Technics in Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year and Transversal (New) Media....Pages 69-92 What was Pastoral (Again)? More Versions....Pages 93-118 Front Matter....Pages 119-119 Invitation to a Totem Meal: Hans Kelsen, Carl Schmitt, and Political Theology....Pages 121-142 The Marlovian Sublime: Imagination and the Problem of Political Theology....Pages 143-166 Humanism and the Resistance to Theology....Pages 167-191 ‘Grace to boot’: St. Paul, Messianic Time, and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale....Pages 192-210 ‘Loves Best Habit’: Eros, Agape, and the Psychotheology of Shakespeare’s Sonnets....Pages 211-234 Front Matter....Pages 235-235 Against Materialism in Literary Theory....Pages 237-257 Performativity of the Court: Stuart Masque as Postdramatic Theater....Pages 258-277 Shakespeare, Idealism, and Universals: The Significance of Recent Work on the Mind....Pages 278-295 Theater and the Scriptural Economy in Doctor Faustus....Pages 296-318 Back Matter....Pages 319-326 Over the last ten years, scholars of early modern English literature, theatre and culture have become increasingly reluctant to engage critical theory. Yet some scholars have maintained an active interest in theory, and this marginal group is growing. Recently, the work of Gilles Deleuze, Sam Weber, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Marion, Slavoj Žižek and others, including work in related fields such as consciousness studies and cognitive neuroscience, have received attention. Such theoretical work has been applied to enhance our understanding of early modern political theory, theology