Disknowledge: Literature, Alchemy, and the End of Humanism in Renaissance England

In Renaissance England, the decline of learning led to the adoption of alchemy as a way of thinking, which was simultaneously productive and suspect. English writers used alchemy to avoid or camouflage pressing topics, such as the relationship between theories of matter and Roman Catholic transubstantiation, the dependence of Christian Hermeticism on Jewish Kabbalah, and the role of women in human reproduction. Disknowledge explores how alchemy was used to castigate humanism for its blind spots and invent a new, posthumanist mode of knowledge.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 368 pages
\n Publication date: 01 May 2021
\n Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
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In her book "Disknowledge: Literature, Alchemy, and the End of Humanism in Renaissance England," Katherine Eggert delves into the state of learning during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Renaissance England. Despite the glaring flaws of Renaissance humanism, many intellectuals of that era clung to their familiar knowledge systems, treating them as if they still held validity. As a result, humanism became intertwined with alchemy, a way of thinking that was simultaneously productive and suspect, reasonable and wrongheaded.

Eggert argues that English writers of the time employed alchemy as a means to address pressing but discomforting topics in an era of rapid intellectual change. They used alchemical imagery, rhetoric, and habits of thought to sidestep three challenging questions: how theories of matter shared their physics with Roman Catholic transubstantiation, how Christian Hermeticism relied on Jewish Kabbalah, and how new anatomical learning acknowledged women's role in human reproduction.

Furthermore, "Disknowledge" demonstrates how Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Margaret Cavendish used the language of alchemy to critique humanism for its blind spots and to invent a new, posthumanist mode of knowledge: writing fiction. Spanning a wide range of authors and topics, "Disknowledge" is the first book to analyze how English Renaissance literature employed alchemy to explore the nature and boundaries of learning. The concept of disknowledge, or willfully adhering to something we know is wrong, holds significant resonance in literary and cultural studies as an urgent concern of our contemporary era.

\n Weight: 550g\n
Dimension: 233 x 245 x 24 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780812224856\n \n