Abstract
Ben Jonson's The Staple of News (1626) is a censorious reflection on the burgeoning news culture of the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. By paying close attention to the play and its contexts, this essay aims to correct the error of too closely linking the Early Modern interest in news with the development of print culture. Jonson's satire on the passion for news enables us to trace some of the early psychological and political effects of the de-privatization and nationalization of information. Indeed, insofar as the play addresses how Early Modern individuals might come to imagine their own publicity, might fantasize their lifestories as public information, The Staple of News documents crucial developments in the discursive history of self-possessive individualism.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 333-350 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Daphnis |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue number | 1-2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2008 |