The Rivalrous Renaissance Envy and Jealousy in Early Modern English Literature

The book introduces readers both to the cultural dynamics of affective rivalry in the period and to how these crucial feelings inspired literary works across a wide range of genres, by luminary authors such as Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Mary Wroth, William Shakespeare, and John Milton. Early modern concepts of envy and jealousy were more actively theorized as central components of human experience than is typical today. Bradley J. Irish argues that literature is the key domain where this Renaissance theorization of affective rivalry was brought to life. Poetry, drama, and narrative prose created the conditions for these concepts to become most socially meaningful, simulating the interpersonal experiences in which the emotions practically manifest.
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