Pity and Identity in the Age of Shakespeare

Early modern English writing about pity evidences a social culture built specifically around emotion one (at least partially) defined by worries about who deserves compassion and what it might cost an individual to offer it. <i>Pity and Identity in the Age of Shakespeare</i> positions early modern England as a place that sustains messy and contradictory views about pity all at once bringing together attraction fear anxiety positivity and condemnation to paint a picture of an emotion that is simultaneously unstable and essential dangerous and vital deceptive and seductive. The impact of this emotional burden on individual subjects played a major role in early modern English identity formation centrally shaping the ways in which people thought about themselves and their communities.<br/><br/>Taking in a wide range of material - including dramatic works by William Shakespeare Thomas Heywood Ben Jonson Thomas Middleton and William Rowley; medieval morality drama; and lyric poetry by Philip Sidney Thomas Wyatt Samuel Daniel Thomas Lodge Barnabe Barnes George Rodney and Frances Howard - this book argues for the central significance of literary material to the broader history of emotions a field which has thus far remained largely the concern of social and cultural historians. <i>Pity and Identity in the Age of Shakespeare </i>shows that both literary materials and literary criticism can offer new insights into the experience and expression of emotional humanity.