Forms of Service in Thomas Deloney's "The Gentle Craft"

This essay relates changing forms of early modern service to the emerging form of prose fiction in Thomas Deloney's The Gentle Craft (1597–1598). Recent scholarly work has emphasized that representations of service registered important changes in the socio‐economic structures of early modern En...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:English literary renaissance 2010-03, Vol.40 (2), p.191-214
Main Author: RIVLIN, ELIZABETH
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aesthetics
Apprenticeships
Artisans
Ballads
Deloney, Thomas (1543-1600)
Domestic workers
Footwear
Guilds
Literary criticism
Narratives
Nobility
Novels
Renaissance literature
Shoemaking
Socioeconomic factors
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Summary:This essay relates changing forms of early modern service to the emerging form of prose fiction in Thomas Deloney's The Gentle Craft (1597–1598). Recent scholarly work has emphasized that representations of service registered important changes in the socio‐economic structures of early modern England, but it has failed to link these material developments to aesthetic concerns. The Gentle Craft represents adaptable, mixed service practices as a model for the innovative aesthetics and generic hybridity of prose fiction. Deloney's narrative, which traces both the reinvigoration of the nobility through shoemaking and the dramatic upward mobility of the common shoemaker, paradoxically redefines service as an aspirational, capitalist occupation and as a deferential, respectful profession. In negotiating these seemingly contradictory positions, the text enacts the role of the flexible servant and demonstrates how early modern service was inflecting concepts of authorship and literary form. (E.R.).
ISSN:0013-8312
1475-6757
DOI:10.1111/j.1475-6757.2010.01066.x