04141nam 2200685 450 991079675400332120200520144314.00-8122-9481-510.9783/9780812294811(CKB)4100000004818291(DE-B1597)494844(OCoLC)1027218487(DE-B1597)9780812294811(Au-PeEL)EBL5380466(CaPaEBR)ebr11555333(MiAaPQ)EBC5380466(EXLCZ)99410000000481829120180522d2018 uy 0engurcnu||||||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierAddiction and devotion in early modern England /Rebecca LemonPhiladelphia :University of Pennsylvania Press,[2018]©20181 online resource (277 pages)Haney Foundation series0-8122-4996-8 Includes bibliographical references and index.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.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 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.Haney Foundation series.Compulsive behavior in literatureEnglish dramaEarly modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600History and criticismEnglish drama17th centuryHistory and criticismDevotion in literatureAlcoholism in literatureCompulsive behaviorEnglandHistory16th centuryCompulsive behaviorEnglandHistory17th centuryAlcoholismEnglandHistory16th centuryAlcoholismEnglandHistory17th centuryCompulsive behavior in literature.English dramaHistory and criticism.English dramaHistory and criticism.Devotion in literature.Alcoholism in literature.Compulsive behaviorHistoryCompulsive behaviorHistoryAlcoholismHistoryAlcoholismHistory822.309353Lemon Rebecca1968-1478773MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910796754003321Addiction and devotion in early modern England3767335UNINA