The social structure of passion -- Intimacy and the eroticism of social distance : Sidney's Astrophil and Stella and Spenser's Amoretti -- Civility and the emotional topography of The Faerie queene -- At the limits of the social world : fear and pride in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida -- Poetic autonomy and the history of sexuality in Shakespeare's sonnets
Summary
Daniel Juan Gil examines sixteenth-century English literary concepts of sexuality that frame erotic ties as neither bound by social customs nor transgressive of them, but rather as "loopholes" in people's associations. Engaging Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, Spenser's The Faerie Queene, and Shakespeare's Sonnets, among others Gil demonstrates how sexuality was conceived as a relationship system not institutionalized in a domestic realm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 139-180) and index
