Early Modern Literature and the Bodies of a Reformed Eucharist

Examines what the eucharist taught early modern writers about their bodies and how it shaped the bodies they wrote about.

Choice 2025 Outstanding Academic Title

Examining what the eucharist taught early modern writers about their bodies and how it shaped the bodies they wrote about, this book shows how the exegetical roots of the Eucharistic controversy in 16th century England had very material and embodied consequences.

To apprehend the nature of Christ’s body—its nature, presence, closeness, and efficacy—for these writers, was also to understand one’s own. And conversely, to know one’s own body was to know something particular about Christ’s.

Sandberg provides new insights into how Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, John Donne, and Aemilia Lanyer use the reformed eucharistic paradigm to imagine the embodied significance of the sacrament for their own bodies, the bodies of their narrative subjects, and the body of their literary work. She shows the significance of this paradigm was for poets and playwrights at this time to represent the embodied self and negotiate how the body was read, interpreted and understood.

UK Delivery:

• Free delivery on all orders of £10 or more.
• £1.49 delivery fee on orders below £10.
• UK orders are shipped via Royal Mail 2nd Class.

International Delivery:

• Flat rate delivery charges vary by country.

Dispatch and Delivery Times:

• All orders are shipped from our warehouse in Northampton, UK within 48 hours of receipt during working hours.
• UK mainland orders typically arrive within 3-5 working days via Royal Mail 2nd Class.
• International estimated delivery times:
• Europe & Channel Islands: 7 to 10 working days
• USA: 7 to 15 working days
• Rest of the World: 9 to 21 working days

View our full delivery infomation here.