The Cambridge Companion to John Donne (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 2/2/2006
EAN 9780521832373, ISBN10: 0521832373

Hardcover, 312 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

The Cambridge Companion to John Donne introduces students (undergraduate and graduate) to the range, brilliance, and complexity of John Donne. Sixteen essays, written by an international array of leading scholars and critics, cover Donne's poetry (erotic, satirical, devotional) and his prose (including his Sermons and occasional letters). Providing readings of his texts and also fully situating them in the historical and cultural context of early modern England, these essays offer the most up-to-date scholarship and introduce students to the current thinking and debates about Donne, while providing tools for students to read Donne with greater understanding and enjoyment. Special features include a chronology; a short biography; essays on political and religious contexts; an essay on the experience of reading his lyrics; a meditation on Donne by the contemporary novelist A. S. Byatt; and an extensive bibliography of editions and criticism.

Chronology
1. Donne's life
a sketch Jonathan F. S. Post
2. The text of Donne's writings Ted-Larry Pebworth
3. The social context and nature of Donne's writing
occasional verse and letters Arthur F. Marotti
4. Literary contexts
predecessors and contemporaries Andrew Hadfield
5. Donne's religious world Alison Shell and Arnold Hunt
6. Donne's political world Tom Cain
7. Reading and rereading Donne's poetry Judith Herz
8. Satirical writing
Donne in shadows Annabel Patterson
9. Erotic poetry Achsah Guibbory
10. Devotional writing Helen Wilcox
11. Donne as preacher Peter McCullough
12. Donne's language
the conditions of communication Lynne Magnusson
13. Gender matters
the women in Donne's poems Ilona Bell
14. Facing death Ramie Targoff
15. Donne's afterlife Dayton Haskin
16. Feeling thought
Donne and the embodied mind A. S. Byatt
17. Select bibliography L. E. Semler.