Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

English

Committee Chair

Joshua Phillips

Committee Member

Cristina Cervone

Committee Member

Darryl Domingo

Abstract

This dissertation looks at several examples of early modern pastoral in order to examine how physical movement into and out of the pastoral setting informs the degree of realism implied by that setting. While the pastoral stops short of articulating the actual social, political, and material concerns of those who literally live in the countryside, it does regularly call to mind a literal rural world. This degree of realism relates the pastoral and non-pastoral settings such that the pastoral environment can represent the complexities of urban life. This pastoral representation translates the difficulties of life in the city or at court into their more fundamental forms. The examples of pastoral I examine draw attention to circumstances that offer a representation of a simpler life; however, they do not offer a representation of life devoid of difficulties. To enter the pastoral setting is in many cases to enter a world in which dangerous animals, hunger, and even death exist. This movement acts as a physical manifestation of William Empson’s notion that pastoral is the “process of putting the complex into the simple.” In this sense, it signals a fundamental quality of all pastorals, namely, the ability to condense human experience into the experience of the shepherd or his representative. The movement emphasizes the correspondence between the realities of court or city and the realities of the pastoral world. While different, they are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, I resist the critical conclusion that pastoral represents escape from life’s troubles by entering a world of Golden Age abundance, peace, and safety. Instead, this dissertation emphasizes the correlation between the pastoral and non-pastoral worlds to analyze pastoral’s means of orienting us toward difficult realities in order to integrate them into a larger conception of life, one that fosters contentment and peace despite the absence of either Edenic or Golden Age conditions.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.”

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Open Access

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