Emotion and the Self in English Renaissance Literature - 9781009271707

Name: Emotion and the Self in English Renaissance Literature - 9781009271707
Brand: Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press

Emotion and the Self in English Renaissance LiteratureReforming Contentment\nAuthor(s): Paul Joseph Zajac\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9781009271707, 978-1009271707\nSynopsis\nThis book offers the first full-length study of early modern contentment, the emotional and ethical principle that became the gold standard of English Protestant psychology and an abiding concern of English Renaissance literature. Theorists and literary critics have equated contentedness with passivity, stagnation, and resignation. However, this book excavates an early modern understanding of contentment as dynamic, protective, and productive. While this concept has roots in classical and medieval philosophy, contentment became newly significant because of the English Reformation. Reformers explored contentedness as a means to preserve the self and prepare the individual to endure and engage the outside world. Their effo.