Date of Award
2026
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
First Advisor
James Knapp
Abstract
This project harnesses posthumanist and ecofeminist insights to illuminate how the category of humanity—whether its metaphysical status, purview, or validity—is at the center of early modern understandings of classical moral and political philosophies. In doing so, my study redresses a gap in the critical reception of Shakespeare’s Roman texts by challenging existing cross-historical, cross-cultural studies that (a) consider the human a stable construct and (b) overlook the capacity for nonhuman forces to impact humanity’s discursive and material practices. I intervene in ongoing critical debates by demonstrating how the figure of Aristotle’s “political animal” exceeds the human in Shakespeare’s Roman dramatic and nondramatic poetry, particularly in Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and The Rape of Lucrece. Specifically, I argue that early modern literary representations of human agency in ancient Mediterranean sea- and land-scapes are positioned alongside, and often considered less favorably than, the forces exerted by other creatures, inert matter, or technologies.
Recommended Citation
Piersma Sharrett, Emily L., "Eternal City, Earthly City: The Reach of Rome in Early Modern English Literature" (2026). Dissertations. 4315.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/4315
