Library Catalog

Islamic Conversion and Christian Resistance on the Early Modern Stage /

Degenhardt, Jane Hwang

Islamic Conversion and Christian Resistance on the Early Modern Stage / Jane Hwang Degenhardt. - 1 online resource (272 p.) : 20 B/W illustrations

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- List of Figures -- Introduction: Seduction, Resistance, and Redemption: “Turning Turk” and the Embodiment of Christian Faith -- 1 Dangerous Fellowship: Universal Faith and its Bodily Limits in The Comedy of Errors and Othello -- 2 Recycled Models: Catholic Martyrdom and Embodied Resistance to Conversion in The Virgin Martyr and Other Red Bull Plays -- 3 Engendering Faith: Sexual Defilement and Spiritual Redemption in The Renegado -- 4 “Reforming” the Knights of Malta: Male Chastity and Temperance in Five Early Modern Plays -- 5 Epilogue: Turning Miscegenation into Tragicomedy (Or Not): Robert Greene’s Orlando Furioso -- Notes -- Index

restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

This book explores the theme of Christian conversion to Islam in 12 early-modern English plays by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Massinger and others. In these works, conversion from Christianity to Islam is represented as both erotic and tragic: as a sexual seduction and a fate worse than death. Degenhardt examines the theatre's treatment of the intercourse between the Christian and Islamic faiths to reveal connections between sexuality, race and confessional identity in early modern English drama and culture. In addition, she shows how England's encounter with Islam reanimated post-Reformation debates about the embodiment of Christian faith. As Degenhardt compellingly demonstrates, the erotics of conversion added fuel to the fires of controversies over Pauline universalism, Christian martyrdom, the efficacy of relics and rituals and the ideals of the Knights of Malta.


Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.


In English.

9780748640843 9780748643202

10.1515/9780748643202 doi


Literary Studies.
LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama.