“No darkness but Ignorance” : Thinking Foggily in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama

Jones, Gwilym 2024. “No darkness but Ignorance” : Thinking Foggily in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama. in: Helms, N. and Mentz, S. (ed.) Water and Cognition in Early Modern English Literature Amsterdam University Press. pp. 199-216

Chapter title“No darkness but Ignorance” : Thinking Foggily in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama
AuthorsJones, Gwilym
EditorsHelms, N. and Mentz, S.
AbstractFog, and its relationship to thinking and mental states, is a frequently employed metaphor in early modern English. This essay considers the range of these uses, positioning meteorological, poetic, and dramatic examples, particularly Shakespeare’s, against those of early humoral thinkers, such as Robert Burton and Thomas Bright. In order to explore these examples further, a number of studies from experimental cognitive linguistics are then introduced and connected to theatre studies in particular. The final section of the essay builds on these foundations to develop a close reading of the fog in Thomas Middleton’s The Triumphs of Truth. In particular, it considers what the salience of the fog-ignorance metaphor means for a cognitive analysis centered on the incoming mayor of Jacobean London.
Book titleWater and Cognition in Early Modern English Literature
Page range199-216
Year2024
PublisherAmsterdam University Press
Publication dates
PublishedApr 2024
ISBN9789048557608
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463724791_ch09
JournalWater and Cognition in Early Modern English Literature

Related outputs

Environmental Renaissance Studies
Jones, G. 2017. Environmental Renaissance Studies. Literature Compass. 14 (10) e12407. https://doi.org/10.1111/lic3.12407

Shakespeare's Storms
Jones, G. 2015. Shakespeare's Storms. Manchester, UK Manchester University Press.

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