Coinage and State Formation in Early Modern English Literature

ISBN-13: 9780230110236 / Angielski / Twarda / 2011 / 268 str.

Stephen Deng

Opis

This book posits that coins and their (especially literary) representations were inextricably bound with several key factors for English state formation within the period. After surveying various definitions and histories of the "state" within the first chapter, this book identifies five major dimensions of state formation which correspond to the five chapters of the book: centralized institutional developments; the limits and extent of state and monarchical authority according to custom, reason and natural law; the development and expansion of a legal framework, in particular statute law, for moral regulation and upholding of state prerogatives; the political theology of state evident especially in the charisma of kingship; and the territorial boundaries of state authority, including their impact on intra-state relations. Most of the chapters marry an element of coinage and a literary text (or set of texts) to one of the key factors in English state formation.

Recenzje

"A pertinent and timely intervention in the debate concerning the nature of money in Renaissance England. Through an impressively broad array of literary and cultural readings, Deng clearly establishes the vital role money played in the process of state formation. His insights into the relation between coinage and idolatry, tyranny, and the ethics of representation have obvious repercussions for our own age, and make this book important to anyone concerned about the current state of capitalism. This book is sure to remain influential on literary and economic studies for many years to come." - David Hawkes, Professor of English, Arizona State University

"Deng s book offers a detailed and fresh reappraisal of early modern coinage - what both Shakespeare and Marx call the visible god - as the turnstile through which radically opposed concepts of matter and spirit, economics and religion, and intrinsic and extrinsic value endlessly circulate. Deng s singular contribution is to show how this circulation subtends modern formations of nationhood and sovereignty." - Jonathan Gil Harris, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Department of English, George Washington University

Spis treści

Introduction: Rough Economies: The Politics and Poetics of Coinage Dimensions of State Formation More's Utopia and the Logic of Debasement: Reason, Custom and Natural Laws of Coinage The Great Debasement and its Aftermath Coining Crimes and Moral Regulation in Measure for Measure 'Mysteries of State': The Political Theology of Money in Macbeth Foreign Coins and Domestic Exclusion in Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday Conclusion: The Changing Matter of Money

O autorze

STEPHEN DENG is an Assistant Professor of English at Michigan State University, USA.