04873nam 2200865 a 450 991081450410332120200520144314.01-282-15864-397866121586431-4008-2493-11-4008-1463-410.1515/9781400824939(CKB)111056486507886(EBL)457905(OCoLC)609845348(SSID)ssj0000151732(PQKBManifestationID)11910623(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000151732(PQKBWorkID)10320171(PQKB)10515768(OCoLC)52244976(MdBmJHUP)muse36089(DE-B1597)446275(OCoLC)979741605(DE-B1597)9781400824939(Au-PeEL)EBL457905(CaPaEBR)ebr10312629(CaONFJC)MIL215864(MiAaPQ)EBC457905(EXLCZ)9911105648650788620011211d2002 uy 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrExcess and the mean in early modern English literature /Joshua ScodelCore TextbookPrinceton, N.J. Princeton University Pressc20021 online resource (375 p.)Literature in historyDescription based upon print version of record.1-4008-1799-4 0-691-09028-9 Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-352) and index.pt. 1. Two early modern revisions of the mean -- pt. 2. means and extremes in early modern Georgic -- pt. 3. Erotic excess and early modern social conflicts -- pt. 4. Moderation and excess in the seventeenth-century symposiastic lyric -- pt. 5. Reimagining moderation: the Miltonic example.This book examines how English writers from the Elizabethan period to the Restoration transformed and contested the ancient ideal of the virtuous mean. As early modern authors learned at grammar school and university, Aristotle and other classical thinkers praised "golden means" balanced between extremes: courage, for example, as opposed to cowardice or recklessness. By uncovering the enormous variety of English responses to this ethical doctrine, Joshua Scodel revises our understanding of the vital interaction between classical thought and early modern literary culture. Scodel argues that English authors used the ancient schema of means and extremes in innovative and contentious ways hitherto ignored by scholars. Through close readings of diverse writers and genres, he shows that conflicting representations of means and extremes figured prominently in the emergence of a self-consciously modern English culture. Donne, for example, reshaped the classical mean to promote individual freedom, while Bacon held extremism necessary for human empowerment. Imagining a modern rival to ancient Rome, georgics from Spenser to Cowley exhorted England to embody the mean or lauded extreme paths to national greatness. Drinking poetry from Jonson to Rochester expressed opposing visions of convivial moderation and drunken excess, while erotic writing from Sidney to Dryden and Behn pitted extreme passion against the traditional mean of conjugal moderation. Challenging his predecessors in various genres, Milton celebrated golden means of restrained pleasure and self-respect. Throughout this groundbreaking study, Scodel suggests how early modern treatments of means and extremes resonate in present-day cultural debates.Literature in history (Princeton, N.J.)English literatureEarly modern, 1500-1700History and criticismModeration in literatureLiterature and societyEnglandHistory16th centuryLiterature and societyEnglandHistory17th centuryDidactic literature, EnglishHistory and criticismEnglish literatureClassical influencesTemperance in literaturePolarity in literatureEthics in literatureEnglish literatureHistory and criticism.Moderation in literature.Literature and societyHistoryLiterature and societyHistoryDidactic literature, EnglishHistory and criticism.English literatureClassical influences.Temperance in literature.Polarity in literature.Ethics in literature.820.9/353Scodel Joshua1958-1593889MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910814504103321Excess and the mean in early modern English literature3914225UNINA