LEADER 04134nam 2200577 450 001 9910825713503321 005 20230809223346.0 010 $a0-268-10169-8 010 $a0-268-10168-X 035 $a(CKB)3710000001123739 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC4731619 035 $a(OCoLC)979560027 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse56886 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL4731619 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr11366805 035 $a(EXLCZ)993710000001123739 100 $a20170407h20172017 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcnu|||||||| 181 $2rdacontent 182 $2rdamedia 183 $2rdacarrier 200 10$aVolition's face $epersonificatioon and the will in the renaissance literature /$fAndrew Escobedo 210 1$aNotre Dame, Indiana :$cUniversity of Notre Dame Press,$d2017. 210 4$dİ2017 215 $a1 online resource (340 pages) $cillustrations 225 1 $aReFormations : Medieval and Early Modern Series 311 $a0-268-10166-3 311 $a0-268-10167-1 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aPersonification, energy, and allegory -- The prosopopoetic will: ours, though not we -- Conscience in the Tudor interludes -- Despair in Marlowe and Spenser -- Love and Spenser's Cupid -- Sin and Milton's Angel -- Epilogue: Premodern personification and posthumanism? 330 $a"Modern readers and writers find it natural to contrast the agency of realistic fictional characters to the constrained range of action typical of literary personifications. Yet no commentator before the eighteenth century suggests that prosopopoeia signals a form of reduced agency. Andrew Escobedo argues that premodern writers, including Spenser, Marlowe, and Milton, understood personification as a literary expression of will, an essentially energetic figure that depicted passion or concept transforming into action. As the will emerged as an isolatable faculty in the Christian Middle Ages, it was seen not only as the instrument of human agency but also as perversely independent of other human capacities, for example, intellect and moral character. Renaissance accounts of the will conceived of volition both as the means to self-creation and the faculty by which we lose control of ourselves. After offering a brief history of the will that isolates the distinctive features of the faculty in medieval and Renaissance thought, Escobedo makes his case through an examination of several personified figures in Renaissance literature: Conscience in the Tudor interludes, Despair in Doctor Faustus and book I of The Faerie Queen, Love in books III and IV of The Faerie Queen, and Sin in Paradise Lost. These examples demonstrate that literary personification did not amount to a dim reflection of "realistic" fictional character, but rather that it provided a literary means to explore the numerous conundrums posed by the premodern notion of the human will. This book will be of great interest to faculty and graduate students interested in Medieval studies and Renaissance literature. "This exhilarating and brilliant book will be a most welcome and timely addition to the ReFormations series, to which it will add distinction. It is also a book that can be relished sentence by sentence, as Escobedo is a writer of intellectual verve and boldness, making hard-won claims look obvious once made." --Sarah Beckwith, Duke University"--$cProvided by publisher. 410 0$aReformations. 606 $aEnglish literature$yEarly modern, 1500-1700$xHistory and criticism 606 $aPersonification in literature 606 $aWill in literature 606 $aRenaissance$zEngland 615 0$aEnglish literature$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aPersonification in literature. 615 0$aWill in literature. 615 0$aRenaissance 676 $a820.9003 686 $aLIT019000$aLIT004120$aLIT014000$2bisacsh 700 $aEscobedo$b Andrew$f1967-$01598982 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910825713503321 996 $aVolition's face$93921504 997 $aUNINA