After Lavinia

A Literary History of Premodern Marriage Diplomacy

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Medieval, Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
Cover of the book After Lavinia by John Watkins, Cornell University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: John Watkins ISBN: 9781501708510
Publisher: Cornell University Press Publication: May 9, 2017
Imprint: Cornell University Press Language: English
Author: John Watkins
ISBN: 9781501708510
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication: May 9, 2017
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Language: English

The Renaissance jurist Alberico Gentili once quipped that, just like comedies, all wars end in a marriage. In medieval and early modern Europe, marriage treaties were a perennial feature of the diplomatic landscape. When one ruler decided to make peace with his enemy, the two parties often sealed their settlement with marriages between their respective families. In After Lavinia, John Watkins traces the history of the practice, focusing on the unusually close relationship between diplomacy and literary production in Western Europe from antiquity through the seventeenth century, when marriage began to lose its effectiveness and prestige as a tool of diplomacy.Watkins begins with Virgil's foundational myth of the marriage between the Trojan hero Aeneas and the Latin princess, an account that formed the basis for numerous medieval and Renaissance celebrations of dynastic marriages by courtly poets and propagandists. In the book's second half, he follows the slow decline of diplomatic marriage as both a tool of statecraft and a literary subject, exploring the skepticism and suspicion with which it was viewed in the works of Spenser and Shakespeare. Watkins argues that the plays of Corneille and Racine signal the passing of an international order that had once accorded women a place of unique dignity and respect.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The Renaissance jurist Alberico Gentili once quipped that, just like comedies, all wars end in a marriage. In medieval and early modern Europe, marriage treaties were a perennial feature of the diplomatic landscape. When one ruler decided to make peace with his enemy, the two parties often sealed their settlement with marriages between their respective families. In After Lavinia, John Watkins traces the history of the practice, focusing on the unusually close relationship between diplomacy and literary production in Western Europe from antiquity through the seventeenth century, when marriage began to lose its effectiveness and prestige as a tool of diplomacy.Watkins begins with Virgil's foundational myth of the marriage between the Trojan hero Aeneas and the Latin princess, an account that formed the basis for numerous medieval and Renaissance celebrations of dynastic marriages by courtly poets and propagandists. In the book's second half, he follows the slow decline of diplomatic marriage as both a tool of statecraft and a literary subject, exploring the skepticism and suspicion with which it was viewed in the works of Spenser and Shakespeare. Watkins argues that the plays of Corneille and Racine signal the passing of an international order that had once accorded women a place of unique dignity and respect.

More books from Cornell University Press

Cover of the book History and Its Limits by John Watkins
Cover of the book Making and Faking Kinship by John Watkins
Cover of the book Playing the Market by John Watkins
Cover of the book The Worlds of Langston Hughes by John Watkins
Cover of the book Restraint by John Watkins
Cover of the book The Contagious City by John Watkins
Cover of the book The Price of Wealth by John Watkins
Cover of the book Everyday Piety by John Watkins
Cover of the book Just Politics by John Watkins
Cover of the book Vico's "New Science" by John Watkins
Cover of the book The North Korean Revolution, 1945–1950 by John Watkins
Cover of the book Erotic Exchanges by John Watkins
Cover of the book The Viral Network by John Watkins
Cover of the book Enlightening the World by John Watkins
Cover of the book The Fate of Freedom Elsewhere by John Watkins
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy