Reading Sixteenth-Century Poetry
Published on 3. May 2011
352 pages
978-1-4443-9655-3 (ISBN)
Description
Reading Sixteenth-Century Poetry combines close readings ofindividual poems with a critical consideration of the historicalcontext in which they were written. Informative and original, thisbook has been carefully designed to enable readers to understand,enjoy, and be inspired by sixteenth-century poetry.
* Close reading of a wide variety of sixteenth-century poems,canonical and non-canonical, by men and by women, from print andmanuscript culture, across the major literary modes and genres
* Poems read within their historical context, with reference tofive major cultural revolutions: Renaissance humanism, theReformation, the modern nation-state, companionate marriage, andthe scientific revolution
* Offers in-depth discussion of Skelton, Wyatt, Surrey, IsabellaWhitney, Gascoigne, Philip Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe, Mary SidneyHerbert, Donne, and Shakespeare
* Presents a separate study of all five of Shakespeare'smajor poems - Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece,'The Phoenix and Turtle,' the Sonnets, and A Lover'sComplaint- in the context of his dramatic career
* Discusses major works of literary criticism by Plato,Aristotle, Horace, Longinus, Philip Sidney, George Puttenham, PercyBysshe Shelley, Seamus Heaney, Adrienne Rich, and HelenVendler
Reviews / Votes
"Highly useful in addressing the formal and genericconcerns of sixteenth-century poets, and thus in demonstratingclose reading, Reading Sixteenth-CenturyPoetry fails to address the equally important politicaland theoretical period discourses or the methodologies needed toaddress them. The unbalanced infatuation with authorial vocationand authorial perspectives thus limits the usefulness of the text.Cheney's companion text may thus represent a more widespreadreturn to traditional author-centered interpretive theories anda turn away from poststructural approaches." (Journalof the Northern Renaissance, 1 December 2012)"Cheney's eye for such intertextual allusion transforms what couldhave been a series of isolated close readings into a delicatelyunified exposition of a century's worth of literary dialogue."(Times Literary Supplement, 23 December 2011) "A carefully selected bibliography that focuses on backgroundsources as well as on primary works and significant criticalmaterial is a valuable supplement to the author's consideration ofthe poetry. Cheney develops his thesis clearly and makes animportant contribution to Renaissance scholarship. Recommended.Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." (Choice, 1 October2011)"Patrick Cheney's "Reading Sixteenth Century Poetry" provides a newand indispensible map of English poetry together with its voices,career structures, influences and historical contexts. Cheney'scohesive account challenges the standard narrative about thedevelopment of poetry in England and does so through dazzlingreadings of the verse. The volume's well-paced, lucid prose stylealso succeeds in making it accessible to undergraduates even as itprovides fresh and important insights for scholars. Everybodyshould teach this book." --Dympna Callaghan, Syracuse University "Patrick Cheney's Reading Sixteenth-Century Poetry isremarkable. Not only does it constitute a masterful and eminentlyreadable introduction to some of the greatest poetry in the Englishlanguage, but it also provides a set of enabling tools with whichthis poetry is best approached. Providing close analysis and thebroad picture, paying attention to text as well as context, Cheneyis a compelling guide to how to read sixteenth-century poetry. Icannot imagine a student who will not greatly benefit from thisstudy." --Lukas Erne, University of GenevaMore details
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Patrick Cheney
Reading Sixteenth-Century Poetry
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05/2011
Wiley-Blackwell
€102.75
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Person
Patrick Cheney is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Penn State University. He is the author of books on Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Spenser, most recently Shakespeare's Literary Authorship (2008) and Marlowe's Republican Authorship: Lucan, Liberty, and the Sublime (2009). He has also edited Cambridge Companions to Marlowe and Shakespeare's Poetry, co-edited Oxford Companions to early modern English poetry and drama, and co-edited an Oxford edition of Marlowe's poems. Currently, he serves as a General Editor of The Oxford Edition of the Collected Works of Edmund Spenser.
Content
Introduction.
The Pleasures and Uses of Sixteenth-Century Poetry.
Part I 1500-1558. Reading Early Tudor Poetry:Henrician, Edwardian, Marian.
1 Voice.
The Poetic Style of Character: Plain and EloquentSpeaking.
2 Perception.
The Crisis of the Reformation, or, What the Poet Sees: Self,Beloved, God.
3 World.
The Poet's Ecology of Place: Sky, Sea, Soil.
4 Form.
The Idea of a Poem: Elegy, Pastoral, Sonnet, Satire,Epic.
5 Career.
The Role of the Poet in Society: Skelton, Wyatt, andSurrey.
Part II 1558-1600. Reading ElizabethanPoetry.
6 Voice.
The Poetic Style of Character: From Plain Eloquence to theMetaphysical Sublime.
7 Perception.
What the Poet Sees, and the Advent of Modern Personage:Desire, Idolatry, Transport, Partnership.
8 World.
The Poet's Ecology of Place: Cosmos, Colony,Country.
9 Form.
Fictions of Poetic Kind: Pastoral, Sonnet, Epic, Minor Epic,Hymn.
10 Career.
The Role of the Poet in Society: Whitney, Spenser, andMarlowe.
Part III A Special Case.
11 Shakespeare: Voice, Perception, World, Form,Career.
Conclusion.
Retrospective Poetry: Donne and the End of Sixteenth-CenturyPoetry.
Bibliography.
Index.
