Edmund Spenser in Context (Literature in Context)

Cambridge University Press, 2/21/2019
EAN 9781107476578, ISBN10: 1107476577

Paperback, 404 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English

Edmund Spenser's poetry remains an indispensable touchstone of English literary history. Yet for modern readers his deliberate use of archaic language and his allegorical mode of writing can become barriers to understanding his poetry. This volume of thirty-seven essays, written by distinguished scholars, offers a rich introduction to the literary, political and religious contexts that shaped Spenser's poetry, including the environment in which he lived, the genres he drew upon, and the influences that helped to fashion his art. The collection reveals the multiple personae that Spenser constructs within his work: to read Spenser is to read a rich archive of literary forms, and this volume provides the contexts in which to do so. A reading list at the end of the volume will prove invaluable to further study.

Introduction Andrew Escobedo
Part I. Spenser's Environment
1. Pedagogy, education, and early career Andrew Wallace
2. Laureate career-fashioning William A. Oram
3. Patrons Richard McCabe
4. Church controversy Gregory Kneidel
5. Figures of Elizabeth Anna Riehl Bertolet
6. Publication and the book marketplace Andrew Zurcher
7. Colonialism and the New World Brian Lockey
8. Colonialism and Irish plantation Thomas Herron
9. Spenser's Irish circle Willy Maley
10. Land, boundaries, and borders Philip Schwyzer
Part II. Genre and Craft
11. Epic David Quint
12. Pastoral Katherine Little
13. Romance Clare Kinney
14. The Bible and biblical hermeneutics Jamie Ferguson
15. Allegory
theory and practice Judith H. Anderson
16. Complaint and satire William Kerwinl
17. Renaissance literary theory Gordon Teskey
18. Renaissance rhetorical theory Michael Hetherington
19. Poetry and the Commonwealth Cathy Shrank
20. Poetical history John E. Curran, Jr
21. Premodern literary character Andrew Escobedo
22. Prosody Paul J. Hecht
Part III. Influences and Analogues
23. Virgil David Scott Wilson-Okamura
24. Ovid Syrithe Pugh
25. Petrarch Patrick Cheney
26. Chaucer Craig A. Berry
27. The Sidney circle Mary Ellen Lamb
28. Spenser's French connection Anne Lake Prescott
29. Plato and Platonism William Junker
30. Aristotle and the virtues Joe Moshenska
31. Protestant theology and devotion Beth Quitslund
32. Emblem and iconography Sarah Howe
33. Saints, legends, and calendars Susannah Brietz Monta
34. Cosmology and cosmography Ayesha Ramachandran
35. Early modern ecology Julian Yates
36. Sex and eroticism in the Renaissance Melissa E. Sanchez
37. Gender in the 1590 Faerie Queene Kimberly Anne Coles
Further reading
Index.