Memory and Mortality in Renaissance England

Drawing together leading scholars of early modern memory studies and death studies, Memory and Mortality in Renaissance England explores and illuminates the interrelationships of these categories of Renaissance knowing and doing, theory and praxis. The collection features an extended Introduction that establishes the rich vein connecting these two fields of study and investigation. Thereafter, the collection is arranged into three subsections, 'The Arts of Remembering Death', 'Grounding the Remembrance of the Dead', and 'The Ends of Commemoration', where contributors analyse how memory and mortality intersected in writings, devotional practice, and visual culture. The book will appeal to scholars of early modern literature and culture, book history, art history, and the history of mnemonics and thanatology, and will prove an indispensable guide for researchers, instructors, and students alike.

William E. Engel is the Nick B. Williams Professor of English at The University of the South, in Sewanee, TN (USA) and author of six books on literary history including Mapping Mortality (1995) and Death and Drama in Renaissance England; and co-authored with Rory Loughnane and Grant Williams The Memory Arts in Renaissance England (Cambridge, 2016) and The Death Arts in Renaissance England (Cambridge, 2022).

Rory Loughnane is Reader in Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent. He is the author or editor of many books and play editions, including, for Cambridge UP, Late Shakespeare, 1608-1613 (2012), The Memory Arts in Renaissance England (2016), Early Shakespeare, 1588-1594 (2020), and The Death Arts in Renaissance England (2022). He is a series editor of Cambridge's Elements in Shakespeare and Text.

Grant Williams is an Associate Professor of English Literature at Carleton University, in Ottawa, Canada and has coedited five books: Forgetting in Early Modern English Literature and Culture (2004), Ars reminiscendi (2009), Taking Exception to the Law (2015), The Memory Arts in Renaissance England (Cambridge, 2016), and The Death Arts in Renaissance England (Cambridge, 2022).