John R. Yamamoto-Wilson

Pain, Pleasure and Perversity (eBook, ePUB)

Discourses of Suffering in Seventeenth-Century England

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Luther's 95 Theses begin and end with the concept of suffering, and the question of why a benevolent God allows his creations to suffer remains one of the central issues of religious thought. In order to chart the processes by which religious discourse relating to pain and suffering became marginalized during the period from the Renaissance to the end of the seventeenth century, this book examines a number of works on the subject translated into English from (mainly) Spanish and Italian. Through such an investigation, it is possible to see how the translators and editors of such works demonstrate, in their prefaces and comments as well as in their fidelity or otherwise to the original text, an awareness that attitudes in England are different from those in Catholic countries. Furthermore, by comparing these translations with the discourse of native English writers of the period, a number of conclusions can be drawn regarding the ways in which Protestant England moved away from pre-Reformation attitudes of suffering and evolved separately from the Catholic culture which continued to hold sway in the south of Europe. The central conclusion is that once the theological justifications for undergoing, inflicting, or witnessing pain and suffering have been removed, discourses of pain largely cease to have a legitimate context and any kind of fascination with pain comes to seem perverse, if not perverted. The author observes an increasing sense of discomfort throughout the seventeenth century with texts which betray such fascination. Combining elements of theology, literature and history, this book provides a fascinating perspective on one of the key conundrums of early modern religious history.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis
• Seitenzahl: 296
• Erscheinungstermin: 13. Mai 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781317084365
• Artikelnr.: 45095896

Autorenporträt

John R. Yamamoto-Wilson is a retired Professor of the Department of English Literature at Sophia University, Tokyo. He has written extensively on issues relating to early modern translations of Catholic literature and the continuance of Catholic culture in post-Reformation England.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents: Introduction
Part I The Suffering Self: Constructs of suffering in 17th-century England
Suffering and sexuality in Catholic hagiography
Polemic, pornography and romanticism: the subversion of catholic asceticism. Part II The Suffering of Others: Cruelty and compassion
The spectacle of suffering. Part III Suffering and Gender: The sexual politics of suffering
The erotics of suffering and cruelty
The emergence of the dominatrix
Bibliography of works cited
Index.