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"Theater of the Self": Persona and the Rhetoric of Character in the Prose of Sir Thomas Browne

Stevens, Carol D.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463066603262

Abstract Details

1978, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, English.
Each of Sir Thomas Browne's prose works has its own speaking voice or persona, which is an idealized and conventional composite of characters. This study demonstrates how the personae are created by descriptive methods which are analyzed in classical and Renaissance rhetoric texts and typified by the character sketches of Theophrastus and his English counterparts. While the function of persona varies from work to work, assuming most importance in Religio Medici and Christian Morals and least in Urne-Buriall and Garden of Cyrus, all of Browne's formal masks have one element in common: they show that the final goal of the self is, ideally, always God. This analysis focuses on aspects of persona which reflect conventional types (e.g., physician, antiquarian, moralist) and which are created by methods which approximate those used by the writers of the characters. In some cases, Browne's character-portraiture of himself seems directed at creating idea1 or good types in direct contrast to negative stereotypes perpetuated by the character sketches. Such is the case with the ideal Godly physician of Religio Medici. The study stresses the universality of Browne's public personae, providing some guidelines for distinguishing the autobiographical from the conventional where both appear in the first person.
Edgar F. Daniels (Advisor)
British and Irish Literature

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Stevens, C. D. (1978). "Theater of the Self": Persona and the Rhetoric of Character in the Prose of Sir Thomas Browne [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463066603262

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Stevens, Carol. "Theater of the Self": Persona and the Rhetoric of Character in the Prose of Sir Thomas Browne. 1978. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463066603262.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Stevens, Carol. ""Theater of the Self": Persona and the Rhetoric of Character in the Prose of Sir Thomas Browne." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1978. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463066603262

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1566463066603262
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