{"product_id":"thicker-than-water-30","title":"Thicker Than Water","description":"\u003cb\u003eExamines the discourses around the role of bloodlines and kinship in the social hierarchies of early modern Europe\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Blood is thicker than water,” goes the old proverb. But do common bloodlines in fact demand special duties or prescribe affections? \u003ci\u003eThicker than Water\u003c\/i\u003e examines the roots of this belief by studying the omnipresent discourse of bloodlines and kindred relations in the literature of early modern Europe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Early modern discourses concerning kinship promoted the idea that similar bloodlines dictated greater love or affinity, stabilizing the boundaries of families and social classes, as well as the categories of ethnicity and race. Literary representations of romantic relationships were instrumental in such conceptions, and Lauren Weindling examines how drama from England, France, and Italy tests these assumptions about blood and love, exposing their underlying political function. Among the key texts that Weindling studies are Shakespeare’s \u003ci\u003eRomeo and Juliet\u003c\/i\u003e¸ \u003ci\u003eOthello\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Merchant of Venice\u003c\/i\u003e, Pierre Corneille’s \u003ci\u003eLe Cid\u003c\/i\u003e, Giambattista della Porta’s \u003ci\u003eLa Sorella\u003c\/i\u003e and its English analog, Thomas Middleton’s \u003ci\u003eNo Wit\/Help Like a Woman’s\u003c\/i\u003e, John Ford’s \u003ci\u003e’Tis Pity She’s a Whore\u003c\/i\u003e, and Machiavelli’s \u003ci\u003eLa Mandragola\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Each of these plays offers an extreme limit case for early modern notions of belonging and exclusion, through plots of love, courtship, and marriage, including blood feuds and incest. Moreover, they feature the voices of marginalized groups, unprivileged by these metrics and ideologies, and thus offer significant counterpoints to this bloody worldview.\u003cbr\u003e While most critical studies of blood onstage pertain to matters of guilt or violence, \u003ci\u003eThicker Than Water\u003c\/i\u003e examines the work that blood does unseen in arbitrating social and emotional connections between persons, and thus underwriting our deepest forms of social organization.","brand":"The University of Alabama Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55318594257240,"sku":"9780817321482","price":100.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780817321482_5dbc9f87-14fe-4227-8d60-00902486bf5b.jpg?v=1778910358","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/thicker-than-water-30","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}