Etymology and the Invention of English in Early Modern Literature
1st Edition
Published on 31. October 2013
978-1-107-45473-6 (ISBN)
Description
How did authors such as Jonson, Spenser, Donne and Milton think about the past lives of the words they used? Hannah Crawforth shows how early modern writers were acutely attuned to the religious and political implications of the etymology of English words. She argues that these lexically astute writers actively engaged with the lexicographers, Anglo-Saxonists and etymologists who were carrying out a national project to recover, or invent, the origins of English, at a time when the question of a national vernacular was inseparable from that of national identity. English words are deployed to particular effect - as a polemical weapon, allegorical device, coded form of communication, type of historical allusion or political tool. Drawing together early modern literature and linguistics, Crawforth argues that the history of English as it was studied in the period radically underpins the writing of its greatest poets.
Reviews / Votes
'... what [Crawforth] delivers most of all is an intriguing, compelling, wonderfully considered account of the linguistic worlds of early modern writers, with their special awareness of the soft and hard landings words have in the world.' Raphael Lyne, The Cambridge Quarterly '... in addition to opening several fruitful avenues for future scholarly work, Crawforth has done readers one other service. By focusing on authors' systematic use of etymology, she shows us that Renaissance poets imagined the study of word origins, a philological and humanistic study, as, more than anything, a practical approach to the world.' Ryan Netzley, Milton QuarterlyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
File size
3,77 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-107-45473-6 (9781107454736)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Hannah Crawforth
Etymology and the Invention of English in Early Modern Literature
Book
11/2013
Cambridge University Press
€128.90
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Hannah Crawforth is a lecturer in Early Modern Literature at King's College London, where she is also one of the founding members of the London Shakespeare Centre. She has published articles in a range of journals and edited collections, and is textual editor for the Norton Shakespeare's new edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen.
Content
Preface; Introduction: etymology in early modern literature; 1. Etymology and estrangement in the poems of Edmund Spenser; 2. Etymology and textual time in the masques of Ben Jonson; 3. Etymology and place in Donne's sermons; 4. Etymology and the ends of idealism in Milton's prose; Conclusion: a world in a word; Bibliography.
