{"product_id":"this-body-of-death-form-and-decay-in-early-modern-lyric-paperback","title":"This Body of Death: Form and Decay in Early Modern Lyric - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eEileen Sperry\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis Body of Death\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e explores how the lyric poetry and other nonnarrative literary forms of early modern England shape our understanding of what it means to be mortal.\u003c\/b\u003e Previous studies of the nature of death in this period have looked almost exclusively at narrative source material: plays, theological accounts, historical reports. Those narrative forms, consequently, have emphasized death, the narrative dimension of mortality--an event in time, life's climactic ending. Eileen Sperry looks instead to lyric forms, which embrace nonlinear modes of time, and argues these texts reveal an aspect of mortality best described as decay: the material instability of the body in the here and now. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapters explore expressions of decay in works by William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, John Donne, and Hester Pulter, through subjects like temperance, poetic immortality, the temporality of grief, and bodily resurrection, all of which capture decay's presence across a variety of experiences. These early modern lyrics and the model of decay that emerges from them are read in conversation with contemporary disability studies and the work of theorists like Tobin Siebers, Alison Kafer, David Mitchell, and Sharon Snyder. Disability theory offers an essential framework for understanding how the forms of texts shape the meaning we assign to bodies of all kinds. Bringing together disability studies, lyric studies, and new formalist methods, \u003ci\u003eThis Body of Death\u003c\/i\u003e reveals new ways of thinking about what it means to die.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEileen Sperry is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Skidmore College.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 222\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.51 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 15, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45432515002470,"sku":"9781501784309","price":66.81,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0599\/7255\/0758\/files\/410DWoWGme9781501784309.webp?v=1775843363","url":"https:\/\/infinitylightwa.com\/products\/this-body-of-death-form-and-decay-in-early-modern-lyric-paperback","provider":"Infinity Light","version":"1.0","type":"link"}