Vital Strife: Sleep, Insomnia, and the Early Modern Ethics of Care. Benjamin Parris. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2022. 298 pp. $64.95

Everyone needs a good night's sleep, but the body's need for rest can be at odds with the social need for ever-wakeful vigilance. Providing an overview of Ernst Kantorowicz's influential analysis of the king's two bodies (and encompassing Agamben's reappraisal and assessment...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Renaissance quarterly 2024, Vol.77 (1), p.332-334
Main Author: Willie, Rachel
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Antiquity
Biopolitics
Early modern period
Ethics
Insomnia
Metaphysics
Sleep
Spenser, Edmund (1552?-1599)
Theology
Tragedies
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Summary:Everyone needs a good night's sleep, but the body's need for rest can be at odds with the social need for ever-wakeful vigilance. Providing an overview of Ernst Kantorowicz's influential analysis of the king's two bodies (and encompassing Agamben's reappraisal and assessment of the two bodies’ origins in antiquity rather than medieval thought), this second chapter presents Shakespeare as skeptical of rex exsomnis, the sleepless sovereign who watches over their subjects in the same way that good shepherds watch over their flocks. Chapter 5 is a highlight of the study, addressing how Paradise Lost modifies Stoic ideas about cosmic reason, physical bodies, and vitality, where the restless insomnia of Satan is pitted against the restorative slumber of prelapsarian humanity and the more recreational sleep of the angels.
ISSN:0034-4338
1935-0236
DOI:10.1017/rqx.2023.547