Thomas Middleton and the Plural Politics of Jacobean Drama / / Mark Kaethler.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Ebook Package English 2021
• VerfasserIn: Kaethler, Mark,
• Place / Publishing House: Kalamazoo, MI : : Medieval Institute Publications, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Late Tudor and Stuart Drama : Gender, Performance, and Material Culture
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XIII, 223 p.)

Thomas Middleton and the Plural Politics of Jacobean Drama represents the first sustained study of Middleton’s dramatic works as responses to James I’s governance. Through examining Middleton’s poiesis in relation to the political theology of Jacobean London, Kaethler explores early forms of free speech, namely parrhēsia, and rhetorical devices, such as irony and allegory, to elucidate the ways in which Middleton’s plural art exposes the limitations of the monarch’s sovereign image. By drawing upon earlier forms of dramatic intervention, James’s writings, and popular literature that blossomed during the Jacobean period, including news pamphlets, the book surveys a selection of Middleton’s writings, ranging from his first extant play The Phoenix (1604) to his scandalous finale A Game at Chess (1624). In the course of this investigation, the author identifies that although Middleton’s drama spurs political awareness and questions authority, it nevertheless simultaneously promotes alternative structures of power, which manifest as misogyny and white supremacy.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Introduction: Thomas Middleton’s Plural Politics -- Chapter 1. “He that knows how to obey, knows how to reign”: James as The Phoenix -- Chapter 2. “And in all times, may this day ever prove / A day of triumph, joy and honest love”? The Witch and the Overbury Trials -- Chapter 3. “Two ways at once”: The World Tossed at Tennis and the Thirty Years War -- Chapter 4. “If this be virtue’s path, ’tis a strange one”: A Game at Chess’s Competing Histories -- Conclusion: “Use but your royal hand” -- Works Cited -- Index