Browsing by Author "Sherrier, Lindsay E."

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Theology of Simultaneity in Early Modern Poetry: Spenser, Milton, and Donne
    (2021-06-15) Sherrier, Lindsay E.; Campana, Joseph
    This dissertation argues that, to better understand post-Reformation shifts in eschatology and conceptions of theological embodiment, a deeper engagement with the role of time in related early modern poetry must occur. In conversation with current scholarship on early modern temporal studies, I examine poetry by Edmund Spenser, John Milton, and John Donne to illustrate their poetic depictions of simultaneity in their representations of such theological issues as remembrance, repentance, and resurrection. For these authors, simultaneity (defined as two different events, characteristics, etc. occurring at the same time) serves as a productive vehicle for negotiating the, often paradoxical, tensions of time within Christianity. In chapters devoted to such works as Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Donne’s Metempsychosis, I demonstrate how these authors use simultaneity to illustrate the generative role of memory in the believer’s understanding of the sacraments, repentance, and the broader history of salvation. I also contend that simultaneity is employed to answer the temporal concerns surrounding the bodily resurrection and to portray eternity—not as an inert timelessness—but as the continuous, dynamic experience of union with God. My readings are on a variety of poetic genres, such as epics, sonnets, and elegies, and includes examinations of early modern sermons. I also engage with early modern scholarship not only on time and religion but also on memory, reproduction, and poetics. I offer new connections between scholarly topics—such as describing resurrection as a reproductive act or framing moral alignment as an issue of time—and expand the critical work of early modern temporal studies by moving beyond the traditional past, present, and/or future framework. As a whole, this dissertation demonstrates how simultaneity is an overarching concept throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—manifesting in theological, philosophical, and literary thought—and, as such, illuminates the importance of broadening early modern studies to include a serious examination of this temporal structure.