A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture (Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture)

✍ Scribed by Michael Hattaway

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 787
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In this comprehensive Companion over fifty of the very best of modern scholars - including Patrick Collinson, Germaine Greer, Richard Harries, Arthur Kinney, Andrew Hadfield , Jean Howard, and Judith Anderson - come together to offer an original and far-reaching survey of English Renaissance literature and culture. The first part of the volume considers pertinent issues such as humanism, English reformations, the development of the language, court culture, and playhouses, in terms of the way in which these aspects of Renaissance culture influenced literary production. There are provocative essays on canonical genres such as love poetry and Jacobean tragedy , but also accounts of popular and occasional drama and verse, and on the visual arts. The Companion also approaches key texts of the period through a number of new readings by eminent scholars in the field providing original perspectives and positions on both canonical and non-canonical texts. The essays include a range of approaches to a variety of texts from 'The Spanish Tragedy' and 'The Faerie Queen' to ''Tis Pity She's a Whore', the poems of Lady Mary Wroth, and a selection of critical elegies. In the final section, the book moves on to explore contemporary debates in Renaissance studies such as feminism, sexuality, historicism, and nation. This Companion is the only book of its kind to travel beyond the stage and is an invaluable guide for both student and teacher.

✦ Table of Contents

ENGLISH RENAISSANCE LITERATURE AND CULTURE......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
List of Illustrations......Page 11
Notes on Contributors......Page 13
PART ONE Introduction......Page 22
1 Introduction......Page 24
PART TWO Contexts and Perspectives,1500—1650......Page 32
2 Early Tudor Humanism......Page 34
3 English Reformations......Page 48
4 Platonism, Stoicism, Scepticism and Classical Imitation......Page 65
5 History......Page 79
6 The English Language of the Early Modern Period......Page 92
7 Publication: Print and Manuscript......Page 102
8 Literacy and Education......Page 116
9 Court and Coterie Culture......Page 127
10 The Literature of the Metropolis......Page 140
11 Playhouses and the Role of Drama......Page 154
12 The Writing of Travel......Page 169
PART THREE Readings......Page 184
13 Translations of the Bible......Page 186
14 A Reading of Wyatt's 'Who so list to hunt'......Page 197
15 Courtship and Counsel: John Lyly's Campaspe......Page 208
16 Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book V: Poetry, Politics and Justice......Page 216
17 Kyd's Spanish Tragedy......Page 227
18 Donne's 'Nineteenth Elegy'......Page 236
19 Lanyer's 'The Description of Cookham' and Jonson's 'To Penshurst'......Page 245
20 Bacon's 'Of Simulation and Dissimulation'......Page 254
21 Lancelot Andrewes's Good Friday 1604 Sermon......Page 262
22 Herbert's 'The Elixir'......Page 270
23 The Heart of the Labyrinth: Mary Wroth's Pamphilia to Amphilanthus......Page 278
24 The Critical Elegy......Page 288
25 Ford, Mary Wroth, and the Final Scene of ' Tis Pity She's a Whore......Page 297
PART FOUR Genres and Modes......Page 306
26 Theories of Literary Kinds......Page 308
27 Allegory......Page 319
28 Pastoral......Page 328
29 Romance......Page 338
30 Epic......Page 348
31 The Position of Poetry: Making and Defending Renaissance Poetics......Page 361
32 The English Print, c. 1550„c. 1650......Page 373
33 Traditions of Complaint and Satire......Page 388
34 Love Poetry......Page 399
35 Erotic Poems......Page 413
36 Religious Verse......Page 425
37 Poets, Friends and Patrons: Donne and his Circle; Ben and his Tribe......Page 440
38 'Such pretty things would soon be gone': The Neglected Genres of Popular Verse, 1480…1650......Page 463
39 Local and 'Customary' Drama......Page 485
40 Continuities between 'Medieval' and 'Early Modern' Drama......Page 498
41 Political Plays......Page 507
42 Women and Drama......Page 520
43 Tales of the City: The Comedies of Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton......Page 534
44 'Tied / To Rules of Flattery?': Court Drama and the Masque......Page 546
45 Jacobean Tragedy......Page 566
46 Caroline Theatre......Page 577
47 Scientific Writing......Page 586
48 Prose Fiction......Page 597
49 Theological Writings and Religious Polemic......Page 610
50 The English Renaissance Essay: Churchyard, Cornwallis, Florio's Montaigne and Bacon......Page 621
51 Diaries......Page 630
52 Letters......Page 636
PART FIVE Issues and Debates......Page 642
53 Rhetoric......Page 644
54 Identity......Page 655
55 Was There a Renaissance Feminism?......Page 665
56 The Debate on Witchcraft......Page 674
57 Reconstructing the Past: History, Historicism, Histories......Page 683
58 Sexuality: A Renaissance Category?......Page 695
59 Race: A Renaissance Category?......Page 711
60 Writing the Nation......Page 720
Index......Page 730
Plates......Page 770