A Study of Robert Greene's Repentance Pamphlets

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K00422
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02030:English literature and literature in the English language-related
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: Arata Ide 慶應義塾大学, 文学部(三田), 教授 (30193460)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 英文学 / イギリス史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Just as, in the seventeenth century, a puritan conversion narrative became the requirement for candidates to be admitted into the Church, Robert Greene’s repentance narrative was, or at least purported to be, his declaration which would have allowed him to regain, in a sense, the lowest seat available as the member of a godly congregation. To refashion himself in puritan guise and secure his position as a self-styled moral commentator, Greene established his Norwich origin, defining himself with a new narrative identity distinctive and profound enough to be recognized by his new, as well as his long-standing, readership. Greene’s reference to the puritan community of Norwich provided a kind of guaranteed security for his moral stance, simultaneously offering him a clear narrative identity. In this way, whenever facing a moral crisis of his own, Greene could assume a puritan self that had been cultivated and constructed by the religious radical milieu of Norwich in the 1570s.

Free Research Field

英文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

この研究は、ノリッジ市の古文書館に所蔵されたグレート・ホスピタル慈善院関係資料に着目し、慈善院の運営委員をしていたピューリタン有力者と作家ロバート・グリーンとの関係を跡づけ、それによってグリーンが回心体験物語においてノリッジのピューリタン共同体に属する作家として自分自身を描こうとした理由を明らかにする。つまり彼はそれによって自分自身の劇的回心にリアリズムを持たせ、故郷の篤志家たちへのオマージュを示したのである。それによりグリーンの回心物語では、ピューリタン共同体の一員としての自己成型がナラティヴの下部構造として機能しており、その点を明らかにしたことが本研究の成果である。