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date: 05 May 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This article starts by stating that the paradox had a reputation in the Renaissance as a witty but somewhat trivial genre. Donne, however, managed to employ the use of the concept of the paradox and turn it into a controversial, intellectually serious, and extended analysis of the ethical, legal, and theological implications of suicide in his Biathanatos which was published posthumously. The article goes on to analyse the reception of Biathanatos, Donne’s intention in writing it, and the subsequent critical analysis it received.

Keywords: Renaissance, paradox, suicide, genre, Biathanatos

Ernest W. Sullivan II

Ernest W. Sullivan, II is the Edward S. Diggs Endowed Chair in English at Virginia Tech. He has authored The Influence of John Donne: His Uncollected Seventeenth-Century Printed Verse; edited Biathanatos by John Donne, The First and Second Dalhousie Manuscripts: Poems and Prose by John Donne and Others, The Harmony of the Muses; and co-edited Puzzles in Paper: Concepts in Historical Watermarks; vols. 2, 6, 7, and 8 of The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne; vols. 1 and 2 of The Complete Works of Abraham Cowley. He is co-proprietor of The Thomas L. Gravell Watermark Archive: An Online Database of Watermarks from the 15th-19th Centuries. He is a senior textual editor for The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne, general textual editor for The Complete Works of Abraham Cowley, and a past president of the John Donne Society.

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