Robert Burton and the Transformative Powers of Melancholy

In this study, Stephanie Shirilan unearths and contextualizes the celebration of the powers of the melancholic imagination in Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, thus rescuing it from the overly literal readings of contemporary historicism. Situating Burton’s recognition of cognitive and spiritual impressionability in its physiological and theological contexts, Shirilan identifies overlooked echoes of his advice that melancholic readers cure themselves by unsealing their minds and hearts.