Mid-Semester Project Memo

Jake de Luca

8 March 2024

ENLS 341

Professor Siewers

Mid-Semester Project Memo

This mid-semester project will examine Sir Philip Sidney’s The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia in cooperation with Writings from the Philokalia and Medieval Philosophy to reveal transfigurational virtue as demonstrated by the novel’s interpersonal relationships and reinforced by Christian influence on individual identity. Specifically, the essay will focus on the interconnected interests of Basilius and Gynecia, Pyrocles and Philoclea, and Musidorus and Pamela. Medieval Philosophy details the importance of balanced consciousness as it relates to living as an honest representation of the self. Similarly, Writings from the Philokalia describe the renewal of the self as having endurance through hardships and willingness to resist temptation. These sources, along with those found outside of the course, will consider the outward presentation of the self and how virtue plays a role in the Christian influence through literary and behavioral themes.

Sections from The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia will draw mostly from the aforementioned six main characters with accompanying areas of focus being:

• Book 2: Inward evil and true identity
• Book 3 and The Third Ecologues: Thyrsis and Kala, Pan and Cupid
• Book 4 and The Fourth Ecologues: Shepherd Singers, “Arcadia’s Gem”

Thesis: 

Sir Philip Sidney’s The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia as well as Writings from the Philokalia and Medieval Philosophy reveal transfigurational virtue through the expression of individuals’ true identity as shown by outward presentation of the self and interpersonal relationships.

Bibliographical Information:

1. Cefalu, Paul. Moral Identity in Early Modern English Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2005. 
2. Miller, Christian B. “Motivation and the Virtue of Honesty: Some Conceptual Requirements and Empirical Results.” SpringerLink, Springer Netherlands, 2 January 2020, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10677-019-10055-1.