|
|
Article: Gorboduc as a Tragic Discovery of "Feudalism".(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
- Article date:
- March 22, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Rice University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Renaissance literary studies have long depended on the master narrative of an "early modern" transition from "feudalism" to "capitalism": from a conglomeration of land-based, militarized, and politicized households to a nation of privatized households governed by a centralized "state." Like all such narratives, this one is a fiction, a questionable way of organizing disparate facts of social change and historical difference. [1] Yet still not completely explored is the extent to which the modern fiction takes its cue from discourses that thrived during the putative period of transition itself. True, historians of historiography have discussed the extent to which ...