Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/11375/28163
Title: | This Body is Without a Head: The Dilemma of Free Will and Social Cohesion in Post-Civil War England |
Authors: | Jary, Sheena Melissa |
Advisor: | Silcox, Mary |
Department: | English and Cultural Studies |
Keywords: | Social theory; intellectual history; social cohesion; political science; metaphysics; space; space-making; history of science; natural philosophy; free will; inequality; social structure; seventeenth-century England; non-fiction prose |
Publication Date: | 2022 |
Abstract: | This dissertation examines how the chaotic social space of post-civil war England inspired new ideas of the ideal social structure and its ability to create social and political stability. Focusing on three non-fiction prose tracts, Margaret Cavendish’s Worlds Olio (1655), Thomas Traherne’s Christian Ethicks (1675), and Gerrard Winstanley’s Law of Freedom (1652), I use the concept of “space-making,” or “how texts aided readers in producing the space in which they understood humanity to be living” (Sauter 47), to engage three distinct perspectives on social cohesion. I situate my study within the larger context of the scientific revolution, and what Michael Sauter calls the “spatial reformation,” whereby humanist thinkers embraced Euclidean geometry to “make” space in a manner akin to God. I argue that, through their writing, Cavendish, Traherne, and Winstanley structure theoretical space to control, guide, or influence how social beings relate to one another and to the state. In doing so they make social space heterogeneous. The authors create theoretical spaces in which alternatives to England’s social structure are outlined. These alternatives reflect the subjectivity and interests of the space-maker, and while each author wishes to establish social cohesion in post-civil war England, the spaces they create reveal unique perspectives on social responsibility, free will, and self-preservation, leading readers to question the benefits and drawbacks of social cohesion. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/11375/28163 |
Appears in Collections: | Open Access Dissertations and Theses |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
JARY_SHEENA_M_November 2022_PhD.pdf | 1.54 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Items in MacSphere are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.