This is a collection of wide-ranging papers on Edmund Spenser, including criticism on the Shepheardes Calender, Spenser's rhymes, his impact on Louis MacNeice, the medieval organizations of the Faerie Queene, on the Mutabilite Cantos, Temperance in Book II, and Friendship in Book IV, Written by younger as well as by well-established scholars, the contributors move quietly away from theoretically dominated criticism, and emphasize the importance of historical criticism, both breaking new ground and recuperating neglected insights and approaches. The introduction describes and defends the current trend towards a renewed historical criticism in Spenser criticism. The papers contribute to our knowledge of Spenser's life as well as to our understanding of his poetry. J. B. Lethbridge lectures at the English seminar at Tubingen University.
Edmund Spenser (?1554-99) was the greatest Elizabethan poet, whose Shepheardes Calender (1579) inaugurated a revolution in English poetry, and whose unfinished Faerie Queene (1590-6) was the longest and most accomplished poem written in the sixteenth century. In his approachable and informative study, Colin Burrow clarifies the genres and conventions at work in Spenser's poem. He explores the poet's taste for archaism and allegory, and the nature of epic and of heroism in The Faerie Queene. He presents Spenser as a 'Renaissance' poet who is drawn at once to images of vital rebirth and of mortal frailty. In clear, jargon-free prose he examines Spenser's equivocal relationship with his Queen and with the Irish landscape in which he spent his mature years. Spenser emerges from this book a less orthodox and harmonious poet than he is often thought to be, but as a complex, thoughtful, and attractive writer.
Edmund Spenser's censored attacks on Lord Burghley (Elizabeth I's powerful first minister) serve as the basis for a reassessment of the poet's mid-career, challenging the dates of canonical texts, the social and personal contexts for scandalous topical allegories, and the new historicist portrait of Spenser's 'worship' of power and state ideology.
A Study Guide for Edmund Spenser's "Sonnet 75," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "A Biography of Edmund Spenser" by John W. Hales. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Publisher: Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press
ISBN: UOM:39015004287630
Category: Epic poetry, English
Page: 264
View: 375
Concerned primarily with The Faerie Oueene, to which the extensive bibliography is devoted, these original essays constitute an important statement on twentieth-century Spenser studies. The eight United States and Canadian scholars who contributed to this volume reflect no particular point of view, nor espouse any single technique, approach, or subject matter. Taken together, however, the essays prove to be remarkably consonant in their twentieth-century view of Spenser’s capaciousness. The contributors, in addition to the editors, are Rudolf B. Gottfried, A. C. Hamilton, S. K. Heninger, Jr., A. Kent Hieatt, Carol V. Kaske, and Foster Provost. Students of Renaissance English literature will find that the volume is not only an important reference work but also an extremely useful overview of the entire range of Spenserian scholarship.
