ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores within the context of the critical modes of narratology and psychoanalysis. Time's role in humoral theory, either as elastic in formulation plays a crucial role in the development of an understanding of how early modern artists pushed beyond the inclusion of mere humoral types in their artistry into an incorporation of the temporal qualities inherent to the humoral self. The scholarly engagement with the humoral theory has sought to clarify how an individual living in early modern England might feel emotions such as joy, sadness, or rage. It is in an attempt to explore the ways that such representations of emotion illuminate affected, contemporary literary characters. The book unpacks Sidney's central trope, reason vs. passion, and in doing so examines the relationship between caloric economies in the work and subjective forms of temporal experience.
