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Record Nr. |
UNINA9910824082903321 |
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Autore |
Lemon Rebecca <1968-> |
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Titolo |
Addiction and devotion in early modern England / / Rebecca Lemon |
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Pubbl/distr/stampa |
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Philadelphia : , : University of Pennsylvania Press, , [2018] |
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©2018 |
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ISBN |
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Descrizione fisica |
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1 online resource (277 pages) |
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Collana |
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Disciplina |
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Soggetti |
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Compulsive behavior in literature |
English drama - Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 - History and criticism |
English drama - 17th century - History and criticism |
Devotion in literature |
Alcoholism in literature |
Compulsive behavior - England - History - 16th century |
Compulsive behavior - England - History - 17th century |
Alcoholism - England - History - 16th century |
Alcoholism - England - History - 17th century |
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Lingua di pubblicazione |
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Formato |
Materiale a stampa |
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Livello bibliografico |
Monografia |
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Nota di bibliografia |
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Includes bibliographical references and index. |
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Nota di contenuto |
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Scholarly addiction in Doctor Faustus -- Addicted love in Twelfth Night -- Addicted fellowship in Henry IV -- Addiction and possession in Othello -- Addictive pledging from Shakespeare and Jonson to cavalier verse. |
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Sommario/riassunto |
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Rebecca Lemon illuminates a previously-buried conception of addiction, as a form of devotion at once laudable, difficult, and extraordinary, that has been concealed by the persistent modern link of addiction to pathology. Surveying sixteenth-century invocations, she reveals how early moderns might consider themselves addicted to study, friendship, love, or God. However, she also uncovers their understanding of addiction as a form of compulsion that resonates with modern scientific definitions. Specifically, early modern medical tracts, legal rulings, and religious polemic stressed the dangers of addiction to |
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alcohol in terms of disease, compulsion, and enslavement. Yet the relationship between these two understandings of addiction was not simply oppositional, for what unites these discourses is a shared emphasis on addiction as the overthrow of the will. Etymologically, "addiction" is a verbal contract or a pledge, and even as sixteenth-century audiences actively embraced addiction to God and love, writers warned against commitment to improper forms of addiction, and the term became increasingly associated with disease and tyranny. Examining canonical texts including Doctor Faustus, Twelfth Night, Henry IV, and Othello alongside theological, medical, imaginative, and legal writings, Lemon traces the variety of early modern addictive attachments. Although contemporary notions of addiction seem to bear little resemblance to its initial meanings, Lemon argues that the early modern period's understanding of addiction is relevant to our modern conceptions of, and debates about, the phenomenon. |
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