Forming Sleep: Representing Consciousness in the English Renaissance

Forming Sleep asks how biocultural and literary dynamics act together to shape conceptions of sleep states in the early modern period. Engaging with poetry, drama, and prose largely written in English between 1580 and 1670, the essays in this collection highlight period discussions about how seemingly insentient states might actually enable self-formation.

Looking at literary representations of sleep through formalism, biopolitics, Marxist theory, trauma theory, and affect theory, this volum...