Pastoral Drama and Healing in Early Modern Italy

Pastoral Drama and Healing in Early Modern Italy represents the first full-length study to confront seriously the well-rehearsed analogy of the pastoral poet as healer. Usually associated with the edifying function of the Renaissance pastoral, this analogy, if engaged more profoundly, raises a number of questions that remain unanswered to this day. How does the pastoral heal? How exactly do the inner workings of the text cater to the healing? What socio-cultural conventions make the healing poss