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"Fortune's ever-changing face" in early modern literature and thought

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TitleInfo
Title
"Fortune's ever-changing face" in early modern literature and thought
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Kelly
NamePart (type = given)
Erin Kathleen
NamePart (type = date)
1984-
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Erin Kathleen Kelly
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
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Turner
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Henry S
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Henry S Turner
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Advisory Committee
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chair
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Miller
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Jacqueline
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Jacqueline Miller
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Advisory Committee
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internal member
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Bartels
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Emily
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Emily Bartels
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Advisory Committee
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internal member
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Glimp
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David
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David Glimp
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Advisory Committee
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outside member
Name (type = corporate)
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Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
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school
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Text
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theses
OriginInfo
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2015
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2015-10
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2015
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO639-2b); (type = code)
eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
Although fortune is ubiquitous in Renaissance literature, treatments of it rarely agree about precisely what it is. “Fortune” often seems self-contradictory, at times associated with unpredictable chance and at other times with the inexorable unfolding of Providential design. Some writers treat it as a force of change beyond human control; others, as a pattern that reveals itself to those cunning enough to seize the opportunity. But what all of these “faces” of fortune have in common is a preoccupation with different ways of knowing: is randomness a feature of the world itself, or a reflection of one’s limited ability to understand causes that come about by necessity? The early modern period was characterized by a burgeoning interest in the problem of contingent knowledge: the Reformation sparked debates about the necessity or contingency of salvation, the rise of modern statecraft necessitated new strategies for governance, exploration opened new markets and challenged wisdom about how trade works, and the New Science used empirical data to back up tentative hypotheses. The question early moderns confronted when they debated the nature of fortune, I argue, was more complicated than whether an actual entity called “Fortune” exists and controls some outcomes; it was about how a concept called “fortune” could be a useful category for navigating contingent knowledge in these various fields. My dissertation claims that fortune enabled Renaissance thinkers and writers, including Shakespeare, Spenser, Bacon, and Jonson, to confront questions about contingency and the extent of human agency. My focus on fortune as an integral feature of literary narratives contributes to a growing body of criticism about literature’s philosophical purchase. In particular, the issues fortune raises regarding certainty, time, and perspective serve as a fulcrum of literary plotting, demanding that audiences constantly reevaluate what constitutes chance or necessity and interpret order and chaos as relative to one’s frame of reference. Literature serves as a crucial site for speculative inquiry that suspends questions of certainty, thereby revealing an alternate history of uncertainty that resists triumphalist narratives of the rise of rational modernity.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Literatures in English
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Fortune
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
European literature--Renaissance, 1450-1600--History and criticism
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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ETD
Identifier
ETD_6849
PhysicalDescription
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electronic resource
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application/pdf
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text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (v, 229 p.)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Erin Kathleen Kelly
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
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NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3KS6TJP
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights

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The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Kelly
GivenName
Erin
MiddleName
Kathleen
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2015-10-01 08:10:11
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Name
Erin Kelly
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
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Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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Technical

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ETD
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windows xp
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