The Renaissance of emotion: Understanding affect in Shakespeare and his contemporaries

Richard Meek*, Erin Sullivan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Book/ReportBook

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This collection of essays offers a major reassessment of the meaning and significance of emotional experience in the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Recent scholarship on early modern emotion has relied on a medical-historical approach, resulting in a picture of emotional experience that stresses the dominance of the material, humoral body. The Renaissance of emotion seeks to redress this balance by examining the ways in which early modern texts explore emotional experience from perspectives other than humoral medicine. 

The chapters in the book seek to demonstrate how open, creative and agency-ridden the experience and interpretation of emotion could be. Taken individually, the chapters offer much-needed investigations into previously overlooked areas of emotional experience and signification; taken together, they offer a thorough re-evaluation of the cultural priorities and phenomenological principles that shaped the understanding of the emotive self in the early modern period. The Renaissance of emotion will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Shakespeare and Renaissance literature, the history of emotion, theatre and cultural history, and the history of ideas.

Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationManchester
PublisherManchester University Press
Number of pages288
ISBN (Electronic)9780719098949, 9780719098956
ISBN (Print)9780719090783, 9781526116918
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Manchester University Press 2015. All right reserved.

Keywords

  • Emotion
  • Passion
  • Affect
  • Shakespeare
  • Early Modern
  • Renaissance
  • Embodiment

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities(all)

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  • Introduction

    Meek, R. & Sullivan, E., Jun 2015, The Renaissance of emotion: Understanding affect in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Meek, R. & Sullivan, E. (eds.). Manchester: Manchester University Press, p. 1-22 22 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

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