Collection of the best scholarly essays from the 2020 Southeastern
Renaissance Conference plus essays submitted directly to the journal.
Topics run from the epic to influence studies to the perennial problem
of love and beyond.
Renaissance Papers 2020 features essays from the conference held
virtually at Mercer University, as well as essays submitted directly to
the journal. The volume opens with an essay that discusses the "ultimate
story," the epic, and argues, pointing to the Henriad and The Faerie
Queen, that some of the most ambitious remain unfinished; an essay on
"just war" and Henry V follows, suggesting why such epic inconclusion
may not be such a bad thing. A trio of influence studies investigate
post-Marian virginity, Miltonic environmentalism, and cross-dressing
knights. Three essays then interrogate the perennial problem of love: in
popular ballads, in Hero and Leander, and in The Rape of Lucrece. An
essay argues counterintuitively for Amelia Lanyer and Margaret Cavendish
as exemplars of the Cavalier Ideal of the Bonum Vitae; it is followed by
an equally provocative reconsideration of the role of Claudio D'Arezzo's
rhetorical works for Sicilian national identity. The last essay analyzes
the formal signatures of three sixteenth-century queens and how they
sought to represent themselves on the public stage.
