Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion presents twenty-seven analytical essays on individual plays from the early modern period. Each essay is... written by a leading scholar and examines a play in terms of a cultural or literary topic, from London to the law, servants to sovereigns, and geography to religion. Incorporating current perspectives in critical studies, the essays address issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and colonialism, as well as key aspects of intellectual and social history, including humanism, science, the law, and theology. Featuring the authors and plays most often taught in college courses, Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion is an ideal supplement to both primary texts and anthologies of Renaissance drama. It offers extensive coverage of works by Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare and also analyzes plays by Francis Beaumont, Elizabeth Cary, John Fletcher, John Ford, Thomas Kyd, Henry Medwall, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, John Webster, and others. The book is structured around authors and their works, which are related to the issue or topic in question. The essays are organized chronologically according to the dates of composition, performance, or publication of the plays discussed. This design corresponds perfectly with courses in which students first read a primary text and then expand their understanding of the work with detailed critical commentary that provides historical and cultural context. Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion is enhanced by a general introduction that looks at the conditions of playgoing in early modern England, recommended reading lists at the end of each chapter, a chronology of Renaissance drama tailored to the book's contents, and brief biographies of the included authors.

Early Modern English Poetry: A Critical Companion presents twenty-eight original essays on the major poems of the English Renaissance. Each essay is... written by a leading scholar and examines a poem in the context of an important topic in early modern culture. The selections provide groundbreaking scholarship on subjects ranging from the invention of English verse, Petrarchism, pastoral, elegy, and satire to women's religious verse, the politics of town, the place of homoeroticism, and Cavalier poetry. An ideal supplement to both primary texts and anthologies of Renaissance literature, Early Modern English Poetry offers fresh approaches to poems by Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Aemilia Lanyer, John Donne, John Milton, and many others. The first three chapters set the rest of the volume in context with coverage of the sixteenth-century invention of verse, print and manuscript culture in early modern England, and Renaissance treatises on the art of poetry. The remaining chapters are structured around authors and their works--which are each related to a specific issue in early modern culture--and organized chronologically according to the dates of composition or publication of the poems discussed. This innovative and flexible design corresponds perfectly with courses in which students first read a primary text and then expand their understanding of the work with detailed critical commentary. The book is enhanced by a general introduction, recommended reading lists at the end of each chapter, and a chronology of Renaissance poetry tailored to the book's contents. Early Modern English Poetry provides an accessible introduction both to a key selection of canonical poetic works in English and to historical and cultural topics that illuminate them.

Covering European history from the invention of the printing press to the French Revolution, this accessible and engaging textbook offers an innovative... account of people's lives, from a variety of backgrounds, in the early modern period and within the global context of European developments. Six central topics - individuals in society, politics and power, cultural and intellectual life, religion, economics and technology - are explored in two chronological sections, 1450-1600 and 1600-1789. The text takes in Europe in its entirety, eastward to the Ottoman Empire, northward to Sweden, and southward to Portugal, includes European colonies overseas, and integrates religious, ethnic, gender, class, and regional differences. Students are encouraged to think about continuities as well as changes across this formative period and throughout the text, maps, illustrations, timelines, and textboxes of original sources and featured topics illuminate the narrative. Online resources include primary source material, music examples and regularly updated bibliographies.

Since its publication in 1987 early Modern Europe (1500 - 1789) has become a bestselling, well-loved classic. Opening at the climax of the Renaissance -... when an educated, city-based laity began to bring their special demands and sensibilities to bear on earlier traditions the book chronicles the dawning of a new age on the continent. Combining the freshness of an interpretive essay with the breadth of wide-ranging historical synthesis, Koenigsberger paints a detailed picture of the Reformation and its significance as increasingly powerful nations began to intrude on their subjects' public and private lives. The text ends with a discussion of the conflicts between personal freedom and the rights of authority that shattered forever the old European order. Early Modern Europe 1500 - 1789 was originally published as the central volume in the bestselling illustrated Series, `A History of Europe', edited by H G Koenigsberger and Asa Briggs, charting Europe's history from the collapse of the Roman Empire to modern times.

This extensively illustrated book offers a new kind of introduction to Europe between 1500 and 1800. It considers the evolving economy and society - the... basic facts of life for the majority of Europe's people. It shows how the religious and intellectual unity of western culture fragmented and dissolved under the impact of new ideas. It also examines politics to consider the emergence of modern attitudes and techniques in governing.

Drawing together common features of society from a range of different contexts throughout Europe, from Italy and Spain to Poland and Russia, Early... Modern European Society surveys the sweeping changes affecting Europe from the end of the fifteenth century to the early decades of the eighteenth century. Henry Kamen includes discussion on: European identities, frontiers and language leisure, work and migration religion, ritual and witchcraft the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie and the poor gender roles social discipline and absolutism.    

Drawing on the most recent social, economic, cultural, and intellectual research, Mark Konnert provides an engrossing overview of Europe during a highly... dynamic and turbulent historical period. The book argues that while territorial trade-offs, resource and wealth distribution, and social conflict contributed to a century and a half of revolts, civil wars, and witch hunts, religion was the main catalyst for the violence that rocked the continent. Konnert's comprehensive study will help guide the student through this complex period in European history. Maps, illustrations, and an index are included.

Incorporating new material drawn from recent scholarship, this Second Edition offers a more complete picture of this crucial period. It also has a... thoroughly updated and expanded bibliography.

Early Modernism is a uniquely integrated introduction to the great avant-garde movements in European literature, music, and painting at the beginning of... this century, from the advent of Fauvism to the development of Dada. In contrast to the overly literary focus of previous studies of modernism, this book highlights the interaction between the arts in this period. It traces the fundamental and interlinked re-examination of the languages of the arts brought about by Matisse, Picasso, Schoenberg, Eliot, Apollinaire, Marinetti, Ben, and many others, which led to radically new techniques, such as atonality, cubism, and collage. These changes are set in the context both of the art that preceded them and of a new and profound shift in ideas. Theories of the unconscious, the association of ideas, primitivism, and reliance upon an expressionist intuition led to a reshaped conception of personal identity, and Butler examines the representation of the modernist self in the work of figures including Mann, Joyce, Conrad, and Stravinsky. Accessible and wide-ranging, the book is lavishly illustrated with over sixty illustrations, many in color. It provides an elegant and incisive guide to a momentous period in the history of European art.

Early Modern Italian history has traditionally been presented in the context of the absence of a unified Italian state, foreign domination and of... relative decline to former wealth and power. This new volume calls on a wealth of recent research to portray the complex history of the early modern Italian states on their own terms. A leading team of historians traces Italian material and cultural bonds of identity and solidarity beyond their common political narrative - from the Reformation through the hopes and frustrations of reform, renewal and restructuring of social and economic power to the eventual collapse of the Old Regime.

This thoughtfully organized survey of Japan's early modern period (1568-1868) is a remarkable blend of political, economic, intellectual, literary, and... cultural history. The only truly comprehensive study in English of the Tokugawa period, it also introduces a new ecological perspective, covering natural disasters, resource use, demographics, and river control.

This is the first anthology ever devoted to early modern Japanese literature, spanning the period from 1600 to 1900, known variously as the Edo or the... Tokugawa, one of the most creative epochs of Japanese culture. This anthology, which will be of vital interest to anyone involved in this era, includes not only fiction, poetry, and drama, but also essays, treatises, literary criticism, comic poetry, adaptations from Chinese, folk stories and other non-canonical works. Many of these texts have never been translated into English before, and several classics have been newly translated for this collection. Early Modern Japanese Literature introduces English readers to an unprecedented range of prose fiction genres, including dangibon (satiric sermons), kibyôshi (satiric and didactic picture books), sharebon (books of wit and fashion), yomihon (reading books), kokkeibon (books of humor), gôkan (bound books), and ninjôbon (books of romance and sentiment). The anthology also offers a rich array of poetry -- waka, haiku, senryû, kyôka, kyôshi -- and eleven plays, which range from contemporary domestic drama to historical plays and from early puppet theater to nineteenth century kabuki. Since much of early modern Japanese literature is highly allusive and often elliptical, this anthology features introductions and commentary that provide the critical context for appreciating this diverse and fascinating body of texts.One of the major characteristics of early modern Japanese literature is that almost all of the popular fiction was amply illustrated by wood-block prints, creating an extensive text-image phenomenon. In some genres such as kibyôshi and gôkan the text in fact appeared inside the woodblock image. Woodblock prints of actors were also an important aspect of the culture of kabuki drama. A major feature of this anthology is the inclusion of over 200 woodblock prints that accompanied the original texts and drama.

This abridged edition of Haruo Shirane's popular anthology, Early Modern Japanese Literature, retains the essential texts that have made the original... volume such a valuable resource. The book introduces English-speaking readers to prose fiction genres, including dangibon, kibyoshi (satiric picture books), sharebon (books of wit and fashion), yomihon, kokkeibon (books of humor), gokan (bound books), and ninjobon (books of romance and sentiment). It also features poetic genres such as waka, haiku, senryu, and kyoka, and plays ranging from Chikamatsu's puppet plays to nineteenth-century kabuki. Readers will continue to benefit from the anthology's selection of significant essays, treatises, literary criticism, folk stories, and other noncanonical works, as well as the numerous prints that accompanied these works. They will also find Shirane's introductions and critical commentary, which guide the reader through the allusive and often elliptical nature of these incredible selections.

Part of the Blackwell Readings in the History of Philosophy series, this survey of early modern philosophy focuses on the key texts and philosophers of... the period whose beliefs changed the course of western thought. Assembles the key texts from the most significant and influential philosophers of the early modern era to provide a thorough introduction to the period. Features the writings of the major philosophical, scientific, and political thinkers of the time, including Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz and Spinoza. Focuses on the development and growth of Rationalism which stressed reason, logic, and experimentation in the pursuit of truth. Readings are accompanied by expert commentary from the editors, who are leading scholars in the field.

Spain as a political entity can be traced to the joining of the two largest Iberian kingdoms through the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of... Castile in 1469. Over the course of the next centuries, Spain rose to European dominance, presided over the world's largest empire, and saw its power and wealth decline until it was finally conquered and occupied by Napoleon in the early nineteenth century. Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History, the first broad-ranging collection in English of writings from the entire period from 1469 to the end of the eighteenth century, comprises 61 documents carefully selected and introduced by Jon Cowans.Beginning with the marriage contract of Ferdinand and Isabella, the volume unveils the rich and turbulent history of early modern Spain through contemporary writings, including documents on the expulsion of the Jews in 1492, a narrative of the conquest of Mexico, accounts of the Inquisition, a profile of King Philip II, a cleric's primer on "the perfect wife," a sermon on the defeat of the "Invincible Armada" in 1588, reports of a bread riot in Seville, a royal investigation of the painter Velázquez, Benito Feijóo's "defense of women" of 1737, a 1790 denunciation of bullfighting, and Charles IV's declaration of war on revolutionary France in 1793.Covering political, cultural, social, and economic history, Early Modern Spain: A Documentary History provides a valuable opportunity to explore the history of Spain through primary sources, revealing the problems and experiences of Spain's empire, tensions among ethnic groups and across regions, the place of women and minorities in Spanish society, and the outlooks and roles of Spanish artists.