A Feast of Strange Opinions: Classical and Early Modern Paradoxes on the English Renaissance Stage 1.1

Book excerpt: This volume aims at providing a comprehensive view of the performative as well as heuristic potentialities of the theatrical paradox in early modern plays. We are interested in discussing the functions and uses of paradoxes in early modern English drama by investigating how classical paradoxes were received and mediated in the Renaissance and by considering authors’ and playing companies’ purposes in choosing to explore the questions broached by such paradoxes. The book is articulated into three sections: the first, “Paradoxes of the Real”, is devoted to a theoretical investigation of the dramatic uses of paradoxes; the second, “Staging Mock Encomia” looks at the multiple dramatic functions of mock encomia and at the specific situations in which paradoxical praises were inserted in early modern plays; finally, the essays in “Paradoxical Dialogues” examine the connections between a number of early modern mock encomia and ancient or contemporary models.