This collection looks at the growing rapprochement between contemporary theory and early modern English literary-cultural studies. With sections on posthumanism and cognitive science, political theology, and rematerialism and performance, the essays incorporate recent theoretical inquiries into new readings of early modern texts.

'The contributors draw on current and emerging fields cognitive science, the new formalism, political theology to cast exciting new light on Renaissance texts. This is an essential collection for anyone interested in knowing where the study of early modern literature is headed.' - Richard Halpern, Johns Hopkins University, USA

'This book makes theory exciting again, both in itself and as a catalyst to re-visioning early modern texts. After a dreary end-of-theory decade, it's good to read essays energized by their engagements with neuroscience, political theology, semantics, and new formalisms. This very smart collection makes a compelling intellectual case for theory's resurgence.' - Jean E. Howard, George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University, USA

Autorentext
JEN BOYLE Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies of English at Coastal Carolina University, USA AMY COOK Assistant Professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA GABREL EGAN teaches Shakespeare and other English literature as well as the art of hand-printing. GRAHAM HAMMILL Associate Professor of English at SUNY-Buffalo, USA F. ELIZABETH HART Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA DAVID HAWKES Professor of English Literature at Arizona State University, USA KEN JACKSON Associate Professor of English and Director of Religious Studies at Wayne State University, Detroit, USA GARY KUCHAR Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria B.C., Canada JERZY LIMON Professor of English at the English Institute, University of Gda?sk, Poland JULIA REINHARD LUPTON Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, USA IAN MUNRO Associate Professor of Drama at the University of California, Irvine, USA WILLIAM N. WEST Associate Professor of English, Classics, and Comparative Literary Studies at Northwestern University, USA JULIAN YATES Associate Professor of English and Material Culture Studies at University of Delaware, USA

Inhalt
Tarrying with the Subjunctive, an Introduction; P.Cefalu & B.Reynolds PART I: NEW FORMALISMS AND COGNITIVISM A Paltry 'Hoop of Gold': Semantics and Systematicity in Early Modern Studies; F.E.Hart If: Lear's Feather and the Staging of Science; A.Cook Ghosting the Subjunctive: Perceptual Technics in Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year and Transversal (New) Media; J.Boyle What was Pastoral (Again)? More Versions; J.Yates PART I: POLITICAL THEOLOGY AND THE RELIGIOUS TURN Introduction to a Totem Meal: Hans Kelsen, Carl Schmitt and Political Theology; J.Reinhard Lupton The Marlovian Sublime: Imagination and the Problem of Political Theology; G.Hammill Humanism and the Resistance to Theology; W.West 'Grace to Boot': St. Paul, Messianic Time, and Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale ; K.Jackson 'Love's Best Habit': Eros, Agape and the Psychotheology of Shakespeare's Sonnets; G.Kuchar PART III: REMATERIALISMS Against Materialism in Literary Theory; D.Hawkes Performativity of the Court: Stuart Masque as Postdramatic Theatre; J.Limon 'Shakespeare, Idealism, and Universals: The Significance of Recent work on the Mind'; G.Egan Theater and the Scriptural Economy in Doctor Faustus ; I.Munro Index