Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of Spring 2009 Love, Lust and Literature in the Late Sixteenth Century Kristin J. Johnson Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd Recommended Citation Johnson, Kristin J., "Love, Lust and Literature in the Late Sixteenth Century" (2009). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 165. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/165 This thesis (open access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. LOVE, LUST AND LITERATURE IN THE LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY by KRISTIN JOHNSON (Under the Direction of Julia Griffin) ABSTRACT I have chosen to focus on several poets of the “long 1590’s,” since I would argue that together they represent, for the first time, a confluence of literary love traditions that have previously existed independently across multiple centuries, nations and languages. First, I consider Ovid and the influence of the witty, Ovidian elegy love tradition as practiced by Christopher Marlowe and John Donne. Then I will discuss Petrarch and the serious sonnet sequence tradition, the influence of which is evident in the sonnet sequences of Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser. Next, since both the afore-mentioned love traditions are based outside of marriage, I will discuss how the reality of the place for marriage in society in the 1590’s and the literary representations of love and marriage create a gap, one that Edmund Spenser bridges with his joint publication of his sonnet sequence, Amoretti, with his marriage poem, Epithalamion.