Critics and scholars have long argued that the Renaissance was the period that gave rise to the modern individual. The Gargantuan Polity examines political, legal, theological, and literary texts in the late Middle Ages, to show how individuals were defined by contracts of mutual obligation, which allowed rulers to hold power due to approval of their subjects. Noting how the relationship between rulers and individuals changed with the rise of absolute monarchy, Michael Randall provides significant insight into Renaissance culture and politics by showing how individuals went from being understood in terms of their objective relations with the community to subjective beings.
By studying this evolution, he challenges the argument that subjectivity enabled modern political autonomy to come into existence, and instead argues that subjectivity might have disempowered the outwardly directed and highly political individuals of the late Middle Ages.
A profound and detailed study of one of the most drastic periods of change, The Gargantuan Polity will be of interest to scholars of French literature, the Renaissance, and intellectual history.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [341]-361) and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 944/.028
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 22
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- e-fr---
- ISBN
- 9781442688155 9780802098146
- LCCN
- DC33.3
- LCCN Item number
- R35 2008eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xii, 374 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)slc00224403 (OCoLC)647920994 (CaOOCEL)430783
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Contents 8
- List of Illustrations 10
- Acknowledgments 12
- Introduction 22
- 1 Bottom-Up vs Top-Down Polities: The Council and the Pope 38
- 2 The Representation of Basel in Chants Royaux Written for the Puy de Rouen 60
- 3 Late-Medieval Polity and Poetics: Jean Molinet’s Ressource du petit peuple 103
- 4 The King’s Two Portraits in Claude de Seyssel and Guillaume Cretin 140
- 5 Barthélemy de Chasseneuz and the Top-Down Polity 167
- 6 Rabelais and the Ideal Imperfect Polity 188
- 7 The Death of Consensual Politics and the Individual in Agrippa d’Aubigné 220
- Conclusion 260
- Notes 272
- Bibliography 360
- Index 382
- A 382
- B 382
- C 383
- D 385
- E 386
- F 386
- G 387
- H 387
- I 388
- J 388
- K 388
- L 388
- M 389
- N 390
- O 390
- P 390
- Q 391
- R 391
- S 392
- T 392
- U 393
- V 393
- W 393
- X 393
- Z 393
