The works of Sir Thomas Browne are often described in terms of the contradictions and paradoxes which seem to exist both within his work as a whole and also within the individual essays themselves. The primary focus of this thesis is the relationship between seemingly opposed forms of discourse and systems of thought in the Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia and The Garden of Cyrus. The emergence of analytic discourse in the seventeenth century is presented through the study of changing concepts of religious, political and epistemological mediation. Browne's 'mediate' position within the conflicts of his era is seen as representing a desire to unite apparent opposites and arrive at a 'complete' way of thinking which combines the medieval and the modern. The unified vision he advocates is of interest in both modern science and literary theory, where the premise of objectivity fundamental to analytic thinking is now being questioned.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.59618 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Lynch, Marianne |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001168341, proquestno: AAIMM66336, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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