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520 Class 5

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COMMUNITAS AND CITY TYPES
WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS

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Learning Outcomes:
  • Take stock of the genres we have seen in the first five classes.
  • Gain a sense of the complexity of London’s communitas and the various subject positions that London’s citizens and denizens occupied.
  • Discuss the literary representations of economic conflicts and negotiations in the communitas.
  • Locate individual citizens and denizens within the overlapping and nested worlds that made up the communitas.
Primary Reading:
  • Harrison, Description of England from Holinshed’s Chronicles (.doc file)
  • Whitney, Last Wyll and Testament (.pdf file; also available on MoEML with links to streets and sites)
  • Dekker, A briefe and merry Prognostication, presaging good fortunes to a Set of fundamentall TRADES from The Owles Almanacke (EEBO; use Table of Contents in transcription to find the section)
  • Fennor, selection from The Compter’s Commonwealth (.pdf file).
Secondary Reading: None required for this class.
Other References: Rappaport; Jones; Travitsky; Hentschell gives a summary of the 1613-1614 Cockayne Project (to export dyed and dressed cloths) in her Chapter 6, Politics on Parade: The Cockayne Project and Anthony Munday’s Civic Pageants for the Drapers; Harte. Note! These references are for information only. I may draw upon them in my discussion, but do not expect you to read them.
Discussion Questions:
  1. Is Holinshed’s tone primarily one of nostalgia (like that of Stow), of disgust and pessimism, of concern and warning, or simply that of a detached chronicler attempting to present both historical origins and present reality? Keeping in mind that Holinshed expresses his desire to not offend too much (1), who is his audience? (KTY)
  2. The Counter’s Commonwealth describes its characters as citizens of London, but never of Heavenly Jerusalem (445). How is this concern about the social mobility of these unconscionable citizens (446) and the rampant injustice and dishonesty in the city treated in Holinshed’s Chronicles and Whitney’s poem? (KTY)
  3. Whitney’s poetic account clearly presents London’s communitas. Even though the author herself may not have been born in the city (as the footnote on page 291 acknowledges), does her writing imply that she considers herself a true Londoner? If so, what inspires her to possess this self-perception? Is it her familiarity with the city, both its distinctive streets and socially diverse inhabitants, or something else? (KTY)
  4. Dekker and Whitney show a sense of authority in depicting the city. For example, Whitney frequently says I shall leave behind (291), and Dekker prognosticates the business of different trades and openly laughs at some of them. Where does this sense of authority come from? How do the two writers position themselves in the communitas, which is hierarchically classified and economically bound? (CZ)
Back to course description.

References

  • Citation

    Dekker, Thomas. The owles almanacke Prognosticating many strange accidents which shall happen to this kingdome of Great Britaine this yeare, 1618. Calculated as well for the meridian mirth of London as any other part of Great Britaine. Found in an iuy-bush written in old characters, and now published in English by the painefull labours of Mr. Iocundary Merrie-braines. London: E[dward] G[riffin] for Laurence Lisle, 1618. STC 6515.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Fennor, William. The Counter’s Commonwealth. The Elizabethan Underworld. Ed. A.V. Judges, 1930. Reprinted by New York: Octagon, 1965. 423–487. Print.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Harte, N.B., ed. The New Draperies in the Low Countries and England, 1300–1800. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. Print.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Hentschell, Roze. The Culture of Cloth in Early Modern England: Textual Constructions of a National Identity. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008. Print.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Holinshed, Raphael and William Harrison. The first and second volumes of Chronicles comprising 1 The description and historie of England, 2 The description and historie of Ireland, 3 The description and historie of Scotland: first collected and published by Raphaell Holinshed, William Harrison, and others: now newlie augmented and continued (with manifold matters of singular note and worthie memorie) to the yeare 1586. London, 1587. STC 13569.

  • Citation

    Jones, Ann Rosalind. Maidservants of London: Sisterhoods of Kinship and Labor. Maids and Mistresses, Cousins and Queens: Women’s Alliances in Early Modern England. Ed. Susan Frye and Karen Robertson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. 21–32. Print.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Rappaport, Steve. Worlds Within Worlds: Structures of Life in Sixteenth-Century London. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989. Print.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Travitsky, Betty. The Wyll and Testament of Isabella Whitney. English Literary Renaissance 10.1 (1980): 76–94. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6757.1980.tb01411.x.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Whitney, Isabella. The Manner of Her Will, and What She Left to London. Women Writers in Renaissance England. Ed. Randall Martin. London: Longman, 1997. 289–302.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

Cite this page

MLA citation

Jenstad, Janelle, Katherine Young, and Can Zheng. 520 Class 5. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 30 Jun. 2021, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/FIVE1.htm.

Chicago citation

Jenstad, Janelle, Katherine Young, and Can Zheng. 520 Class 5. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 30, 2021. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/FIVE1.htm.

APA citation

Jenstad, J., Young, K., & Zheng, C. 2021. 520 Class 5. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 6.6). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/6.6/FIVE1.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, RefWorks, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

TY  - ELEC
A1  - Jenstad, Janelle
A1  - Young, Katherine
A1  - Zheng, Can
ED  - Jenstad, Janelle
T1  - 520 Class 5
T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
ET  - 6.6
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/06/30
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/FIVE1.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/xml/standalone/FIVE1.xml
ER  -

TEI citation

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