The human soul as battleground

After an overview of dualistic conceptions of the self in Plato, the Bible, Augustine and further classical, medieval and Renaissance sources, this study discusses key variations of such notions through sustained readings of major texts in chapters on Renaissance sonnets, Royalist Civil War Poetry, Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, Bunyan’s ‘Grace Abounding’, Pilgrim’s ‘Progress and The Holy War’, Richardson’s ‘Pamela’, Sterne’s ‘Sentimental Journey’, Wordsworth’s ‘Prelude’, Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre’, Wilde’s ‘Dorian Gray’ and Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’. Among the recurring themes are the mind-body relationship, the body politic analogy, ideologies of love, the evaluation of sense perceptions, and the struggle between the higher and the lower human faculties.