Introduction -- Subjectivity and the antiquarian object: Petrarch among the ruins of Rome -- Here comes objectivity: Spenser's 1590 the Faerie Queene, book 3 -- Playing with things: reification in Marlowe's Hero and Leander -- Feeling like a fragment: Shakespeare's the Rape of L…
We have become used to looking at art from a stance of detachment. In order to be objective, we create a 'mental space' between ourselves and the objects of our investigation, separating internal and external worlds. This detachment dates back to the early modern period, when re…
We have become used to looking at art from a stance of detachment. In order to be objective, we create a 'mental space' between ourselves and the objects of our investigation, separating internal and external worlds. This detachment dates back to the early modern period, when re…
"Objects of Affection"; explores how the people of early modern England imagined, believed, hoped, and feared the material objects they exchanged with those closest to them would strengthen, sever, or otherwise shape their intimate ties to one another. More specifically, this pr…
This dissertation argues that the biblical analogy between adultery and idolatry generates a rich history of sexual, religious, and political principles—operating through literary motifs, figures, and plots—in Judeo-Christian texts and the secular Renaissance literature that bra…
As protestantism takes hold amongst the English populace in the sixteenth-century, increased focus on bible-reading and specifically the Old Testament, the literal hermeneutic, and the idea of God's covenant with a specific nation originating with Israel, converge to create a ne…
The purpose of the present study is to see the Turk in the English Renaissance as a threat and yet as a geopolitical adversary. Despite the threat the Turks created during the sixteenth century, the study proposes that they played a constructive role in defining some aspects of …
Strict attention to the surface of Tamburlaine Part One reveals details about Marlowe's dramaturgy that have not been well understood before, and it shows that Marlowe was the first to make use of techniques that we now think of as characteristically Shakespearean. Tamburlaine p…
During the early modern period, New World exploration and colonization created a labor crisis that was eventually solved by the European superpowers through chattel slavery. In England during the late-sixteenth century, moralists celebrated the humanist ethics guiding the nation…
This dissertation examines the strategies of constructing religious and racial difference in early modern drama. The plays examined in this study are by the major and minor playwrights of the period. They include, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Robert Daborne, Philip …
My dissertation deals with the cultural exchange between England and West Africa during the middle and late 16th century. Morocco's political and military strength was similar to that of England at this time, leading to equal and frequent social, economic, and diplomatic discour…
In the period between 1579 and 1624 nearly sixty dramatic works featuring Islamic themes, characters, or settings were produced in England. Though not all of their Islamic references are specifically Ottoman, I am calling this group of works the "Turkish Plays" for two reasons. …