The End of Satisfaction

Drama and Repentance in the Age of Shakespeare

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British
Cover of the book The End of Satisfaction by Heather Hirschfeld, Cornell University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Heather Hirschfeld ISBN: 9780801470622
Publisher: Cornell University Press Publication: April 17, 2014
Imprint: Cornell University Press Language: English
Author: Heather Hirschfeld
ISBN: 9780801470622
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication: April 17, 2014
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Language: English

In The End of Satisfaction, Heather Hirschfeld recovers the historical specificity and the conceptual vigor of the term "satisfaction" during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Focusing on the term’s significance as an organizing principle of Christian repentance, she examines the ways in which Shakespeare and his contemporaries dramatized the consequences of its re- or de-valuation in the process of Reformation doctrinal change. The Protestant theology of repentance, Hirschfeld suggests, underwrote a variety of theatrical plots "to set things right" in a world shorn of the prospect of "making enough" (satisfacere).Hirschfeld’s semantic history traces today’s use of "satisfaction"—as an unexamined measure of inward gratification rather than a finely nuanced standard of relational exchange—to the pressures on legal, economic, and marital discourses wrought by the Protestant rejection of the Catholic sacrament of penance (contrition, confession, satisfaction) and represented imaginatively on the stage. In so doing, it offers fresh readings of the penitential economies of canonical plays including Dr. Faustus, The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello; considers the doctrinal and generic importance of lesser-known plays including Enough Is as Good as a Feast and Love’s Pilgrimage; and opens new avenues into the study of literature and repentance in early modern England.

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

In The End of Satisfaction, Heather Hirschfeld recovers the historical specificity and the conceptual vigor of the term "satisfaction" during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Focusing on the term’s significance as an organizing principle of Christian repentance, she examines the ways in which Shakespeare and his contemporaries dramatized the consequences of its re- or de-valuation in the process of Reformation doctrinal change. The Protestant theology of repentance, Hirschfeld suggests, underwrote a variety of theatrical plots "to set things right" in a world shorn of the prospect of "making enough" (satisfacere).Hirschfeld’s semantic history traces today’s use of "satisfaction"—as an unexamined measure of inward gratification rather than a finely nuanced standard of relational exchange—to the pressures on legal, economic, and marital discourses wrought by the Protestant rejection of the Catholic sacrament of penance (contrition, confession, satisfaction) and represented imaginatively on the stage. In so doing, it offers fresh readings of the penitential economies of canonical plays including Dr. Faustus, The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello; considers the doctrinal and generic importance of lesser-known plays including Enough Is as Good as a Feast and Love’s Pilgrimage; and opens new avenues into the study of literature and repentance in early modern England.

More books from Cornell University Press

Cover of the book French Sociology by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Between Two Motherlands by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Transnational Tortillas by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book The Complexities of Care by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Making and Faking Kinship by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book The City Is the Factory by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Dark Age Nunneries by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Origins by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Race against Empire by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Investing in Financial Research by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book The Transformation of a Religious Landscape by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Disability and Employer Practices by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Hidden Hunger by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book How Russia Really Works by Heather Hirschfeld
Cover of the book Building More Effective Unions by Heather Hirschfeld
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