This book takes a close look at Shakespeare’s engagement with the flurry of controversy and activity surrounding the concept of conversion in post-Reformation England. For playhouse audiences during the period, conversional thought encompassed a markedly diverse, fluid amalgamation of ideas, practices, and arguments centered on the means by which an individual could move from one category of identity to another. In an analysis that includes chapter-length readings of The Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV Part I, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Tempest, the book argues that Shakespearean drama made a unique and substantive intervention in public discourse surrounding conversion, and continues to speak meaningfully about conversional experience for audiences in the present age. It will be of particular benefit to students and scholars with an interest in theatrical history, performance theory, theology, cultural studies, race studies, and gender studies.
Author(s): Stephen Wittek
Series: Early Modern Literature in History
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 205
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
1 Introduction: Turning into Other Things
2 What We Talk About When We Talk About Conversion
Conversion Studies: Defining the Indefinable
The Word We Use to Describe the Thing We Call Conversion
Paul and Augustine: Avatars of Conversion
Conversion, Theatricality, and Anti-theatricality
3 Conversion, Coercion, and Persuasion in The Taming of the Shrew
4 The Politics of Conversion in Henry IV, Part 1
5 Conversional Transactions in The Merchant of Venice
6 Citizenship and Conversion in Othello
7 Colonialism and Conversion in The Tempest
Epilogue: Conversion, Ambivalence, Interrogation, Culture-Making
Appendix I: Summary of the Meanings for “Conversion” That Were Active in Early Modernity (OED)
Appendix II: Conversion, Convert ~, and Convertite in Shakespeare’s Works
Bibliography
Index
