Research Catalog

Old masters, new subjects : early modern and poststructuralist theories of will

Title
Old masters, new subjects : early modern and poststructuralist theories of will / Dolora A. Wojciehowski.
Author
Wojciehowski, Dolora A., 1957-
Publication
Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 1995.

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Details

Description
xiv, 260 pages; 23 cm
Summary
The encounter - sometimes conflict - between traditional Renaissance studies and poststructuralism occasions this book. In it, the author analyzes "old masteries," certain notions of freedom, individualism, and control long associated with the Renaissance, in relation to the ideologies of non-mastery that recur in theory today. This book has a dual purpose. First, it recontextualizes the debates on freedom and determinism presented by five "masters"--Petrarch, Luther, Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and Galileo - by showing that their paradigmatic discourses on will share a distinct rhetorical strategy. Second, it argues that the dominant critical paradigms of the late twentieth century, while ostensibly rejecting and transcending early modern ideas of subjecthood, actually recast Renaissance debates on freedom and power. In many ways, the early modern functions as the unconscious of critical theory.
Alternative Title
Early modern and poststructuralist theories of will
Subject
  • 1450-1600
  • European literature > Renaissance, 1450-1600 > History and criticism
  • Will in literature
  • Religion in literature
  • European literature > Renaissance
  • Poststrukturalismus
  • Theorie
  • Philosophie
  • Theologie
  • Wille
  • Willensfreiheit
  • Wille
Genre/Form
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-251) and index.
Contents
The metamorphoses of the subject in critical theory -- Humanism : the fortunes of Francis Petrarch -- Theology : will and bondage in Martin Luther, Ignatius Loyola, and Teresa of Avila -- Science : Galileo and the book of nature.
ISBN
  • 0804723869
  • 9780804723862
LCCN
94028354
OCLC
  • ocm30701104
  • 30701104
  • SCSB-2064139
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library