Instinct, Knowledge and Occult Science on the Early Modern English Stage

Traces how instinct shifted in the face of new cultural imperatives during the Renaissance

• Offers the first study of early modern literature and instinct
• Provides readings of understudied genres, including almanacs, demonologies, books of secrets, and other occult and scientific tracts
• Examines both well-known and lesser-known drama by Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and others
• Argues that instinct was an alternative to human reason, allowing authors to interpret the human body and to question the status of the epistemological legitimacy of occult sciences
• Shows how central the stage was to the ongoing scientific debates regarding the role of instinct

In Instinct, Knowledge and Occult Science on the Early Modern English Stage, Katherine Walker focuses on embodied experiences in the theater and the debates within the sciences that eventually fell out of favor but interlaced “gut feelings” with observational practice. She examines understudied occult sciences, looking to genres such as almanacs, witchcraft pamphlets and demonologies. As Walker argues, the early modern discourse of instinct registers shifting appraisals of the body’s role in making new knowledge. Unlike reason, instinct allowed anyone—a witch, an animal or a queen—to interpret a complex, animate environment. This knowledge was not only a seductive idea, but also opened up a range of debates on the limits of human cognition, the rights of marginalised individuals to offer new understanding, and the contours of what we can know about the environment.