Kevin Chovanec - Pan-Protestant heroism in early modern Europe

Within the period 15201740, this large, long-running series, with international representation discusses many kinds of writing, both within and outside the established canon. The volumes may employ different theoretical perspectives, but they share an historical awareness and an interest in seeing their texts in lively negotiation with their own and successive cultures.

Editorial Board:

Sharon Achinstein, John Hopkins University, USA

John Kerrigan, University of Cambridge, UK

Richard C McCoy, Columbia University, USA

Jean Howard, Columbia University, USA

Adam Smyth, University of Oxford, UK

Cathy Shrank, University of Sheffield, UK

Michelle OCallaghan, University of Reading, UK

Steven Zwicker, Washington University, USA

Katie Larson, University of Toronto, Canada

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Any book, as acknowledgements continually remind us, incurs innumerable debts, even more with a first book. I would like to thank the many colleagues and mentors who have guided my studies throughout my career. Entering college, I intended to be an actuary, until I was converted to a literature major by John Currans Shakespeare course; while probably a decision with negative economic effects, it has had salubrious effects on my health and happiness. Im grateful, too, to all those who shaped my scholarship at the University of North Carolina, especially Reid Barbour and Jessica Wolfe, who continued to provide tireless feedback and advice long after graduation. My thanks to past colleagues at Tulane, especially Scott Oldenburg, a fellow scholar of Anglo-Dutch exchange and one of the most generous mentors and scholars that I have met, and colleagues at my current institutional home, Christian Brothers University, where I am fortunate to be part of such a collegial and supportive environment.

Sections from my first chapter and my final chapter appeared first as journal articles. Ideas about the transnationalism of Spensers epic overlap with my The Borders of Fairyland: Transnational Readings of Spenser in Stuart England,Spenser Studies31 (2018): 7196. While only a few paragraphs, much revised in expansion, have been redeployed in this book, I would like to thankSpenser Studies, both the editors and reviewers, for the insightful feedback which helped expand my thoughts. My final chapter derives in part from a recent article inRenaissance Studies: The German Liberty in England and the Dutch Republic: On the Pan-Protestant Literary Field and the Circulation of a Loaded Epithet,Renaissance Studies32 (2018): 406426. Once again, I appreciate the advice I received from all involved, and I thank both journals for permission to republish the revised works.

Most of all, I would like to thank my family. Ive heard from others that graduate studies can be among the most challenging and loneliest times in life, but because of my partner, it was among the best; and I had the pleasure of reworking my dissertation into a book with my daughter, who spent many very early mornings during the first months of her life cradled in my arm as I worked through revisions and talked to myself about Anglo-Dutch-German relations during early modernity. (I hope the experience wasnt too scarring.)

While our field, currently, is grappling with enormous ethical and economic challenges, I am always heartened by how many brilliant and good people devote themselves to this besieged profession. What a privilege to get to think about identity, and art, and literature as a career, and Im grateful to all who have thought through this with me.