Narrative and Meaning in Early Modern England: Browne's Skull and Other Histories (Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture)
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Reissue, 6/21/2007
EAN 9780521036863, ISBN10: 0521036860
Paperback, 248 pages, 22.7 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm
Language: English
Howard Marchitello's 1997 study of narrative techniques in Renaissance discourse analyses imaginative conjunctions of literary texts, such as those by Shakespeare and Browne, with developments in scientific and technical writing. In Narrative and Meaning in Early Modern England he explores the relationship between a range of early modern discourses, such as cartography, anatomy and travel writing, and the developing sense of the importance of narrative in producing meaning. Narrative was used in the Renaissance as both a mode of discourse and an epistemology; it not only produced knowledge, it also dictated how that knowledge should be understood. Marchitello uses a wide range of cultural documents to illustrate the importance of narrative in constructing the Renaissance understanding of time and identity. By highlighting the inherent textual element in imaginative and scientific discourses, his study also evaluates a range of contemporary critical practices and explores their relation to narrative and the production of meaning.
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
narrationalities
1. Shakespeare's Othello and Vesalius's Fabrica
anatomy, gender and the narrative production of meaning
2. (Dis)embodied letters and The Merchant of Venice
writing, editing, history
3. Political maps
the production of cartography in early modern England
4. Possessing the New World
historicism and the story of the anecdote
5. Browne's skull
Notes
Bibliography
Index.