Whithersoever Thou Goest: the Discourses of Exile in Early Modern Literature
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--English English 2014 WHITHERSOEVER THOU GOEST: THE DISCOURSES OF EXILE IN EARLY MODERN LITERATURE Joshua Seth Lee University of Kentucky, [email protected] Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Lee, Joshua Seth, "WHITHERSOEVER THOU GOEST: THE DISCOURSES OF EXILE IN EARLY MODERN LITERATURE" (2014). Theses and Dissertations--English. 15. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/15 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--English by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. 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Joshua Seth Lee, Student Dr. Matthew Giancarlo, Major Professor Dr. Andy Doolen, Director of Graduate Studies WHITHERSOEVER THOU GOEST: THE DISCOURSES OF EXILE IN EARLY MODERN LITERATURE DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences At the University of Kentucky By Joshua Seth Lee Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Matthew Giancarlo, Professor of English Lexington, Kentucky Copyright © Joshua Seth Lee 2014 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION WHITERSOEVER THOU GOEST: THE DISCOURSES OF EXILE IN EARLY MODERN LITERATURE Exile is, as Edward Said so eloquently put it, “the perilous territory of not-belonging.” Exiled peoples operate on the margins of their native culture: part of it, but excluded from it permanently or temporarily. Broadly speaking, my project explores the impact of exile on English literature of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. English exiles appear frequently in literary studies of the period, but little attention has thus far been focused on the effect of exile itself on late medieval and early modern authors. Historical studies on exile have been more prevalent and engaging. My project builds on this work and contributes new and groundbreaking investigations into the literary reflections of these important topics, mapping the influence of exile on trans-Reformation English literature. My dissertation identifies and defines a new, critical lens focusing on later medieval and early modern literature. I call this lens the “mind of exile,” a cognitive phenomenon that influences textual structure, and metaphorical usage, as well as shapes individual and national identities. It contributes new theories regarding the development of polemic as a genre and their contribution to the development of the “nation-state” idea that occurred in the sixteenth century. It identifies a new genre I call polemic chronicle, which adopts and deploys the conventions of chronicle in order to declare a personal and/or national identity. Lastly, it contributes new scholarship to Spenser studies by building on established scholarship exploring the hybrid identity of Edmund Spenser. To these studies, I add fresh critical readings of A View of the State of Ireland and Colin Clouts Comes Home Againe. Both texts represent, I argue, proto-colonial literature influenced by Spenser’s mind of exile that explore England’s new position at the end of the sixteenth century as a burgeoning imperial power. KEYWORDS: exile, polemic, reformation studies, Edmund Spenser, recusants WHITERSOEVER THOU GOEST: THE DISCOURSES OF EXILE IN EARLY MODERN LITERATURE By J. Seth Lee Dr. Matthew Giancarlo Director of Dissertation Dr. Andy Doolen Director of Graduate Studies 29 August 2014 Date For my wife: She keeps me grounded in the present while I rummage around in the past. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation represents nearly six years of work in one form or another, and it would never have reached completion without the guidance and support of numerous individuals. First, I would like to thank Matthew Giancarlo, my dissertation chair and mentor, for his careful and continuing efforts to make me into a better scholar. I would also like to thank the remainder of my committee: Joyce MacDonald, Lisa Zunshine, and Jane Phillips. Each of these scholars, and now my friends, has left their stamp on this project and me as both have developed and matured. I would like to acknowledge as well the Department of English and the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky for their financial support. I extend my thanks to The Folger Shakespeare Library for access to their sixteenth century holdings and their permission to reproduce the image found in Chapter Two. Finally, I want to thank my colleagues – Heather Chacón, Amy Anderson, Drew Heverin, and Mary Clai Jones – for reading so many drafts and offering their generous advice and support throughout the process. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... v Chapter One: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter Two: “Myn inner man was altogidre þus departid:” Defining a Mind of Exile ............. 11 Chaucer’s Exile: Custance and The Man of Law’s Tale ........................................................... 15 Cognitive Proximity and Ideological Distance: A Lollard Mind of Exile ................................ 21 The Plowman’s Tale: Exilic Text and Text as Exile ................................................................. 35 Chapter Three: “To the Glory of God and Profit of the Commonwealth:” Protestant Exilic Rhetoric and National Identity ...................................................................................................... 48 Defining Authority: Texts, Kings, and Governors in The Romishe Fox .................................. 52 From Foxes to Poxes: The Interior/Exterior Dichotomy of Exile Polemic .............................. 66 Chapter Four: “Oportet meliora tempora non expectare sed facere”: A Catholic Rhetoric of Recusancy ..................................................................................................................................... 81 Concurrence and Sub-alternation: Recusants and the corpus mysticum ................................... 88 The Faith First Planted: The Authority of the Past and Struggle for the Present ................... 106 Chapter Five: “Exuls Out of His Court Be Thrust:” Edmund Spenser and Nation-less Exile ... 114 Writing an English Ireland: A View as Polemic Chronicle ..................................................... 118 A Nationless Exilic Poem: Colin Clouts and Spenser’s Distance and Return ........................ 131 Chapter Six: Epilogue ................................................................................................................. 145 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 148 VITA ........................................................................................................................................... 160 iv TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: "Exile" from Ripa's Iconologia ..................................................................................... 42 v Chapter One: Introduction We are all exiles. Or, at least we are all exiles according to the Judeo-Christian religious tradition inherited by the western world where exile has a long history as both a spiritual and physical punishment. During the middle ages excommunication was simultaneously a political and spiritual banishment from the religious community and a potentially eternal exclusion from the kingdom of God. As a secular punishment exile dates back well into the ancient world.1 Throughout the complicated political and ecclesiastical upheavals of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries,