The Challenges of Orpheus
Lyric Poetry and Early Modern England
Published on 24. March 2008
304 pages
978-0-8018-9613-2 (ISBN)
Description
2008 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
As a literary mode "lyric" is difficult to define precisely. While the term has conventionally been applied to brief, songlike poems expressing the speaker's interior thoughts critics have questioned many of the assumptions underlying this definition, calling into doubt the very possibility of self-expression in language.
Whereas much recent scholarship on lyric has centered on the Romantic era, Heather Dubrow turns instead to the poetry of early modern England. The Challenges of Orpheus confronts widespread assumptions about lyric, exploring such topics as its relationship to its audiences, the impact of material conditions of production and other cultural pressures, lyric's negotiations of gender, and the interactions and tensions between lyric and narrative.
Offering fresh perspectives on major texts of the period-from Wyatt's "My lute awake" to Milton's Nativity Ode-as well as poems by lesser-known figures, Dubrow extends her critical conclusions to poetry in other historical periods and to the relationship between creative writers and critics, recommending new directions for the study of lyric and of genre.
As a literary mode "lyric" is difficult to define precisely. While the term has conventionally been applied to brief, songlike poems expressing the speaker's interior thoughts critics have questioned many of the assumptions underlying this definition, calling into doubt the very possibility of self-expression in language.
Whereas much recent scholarship on lyric has centered on the Romantic era, Heather Dubrow turns instead to the poetry of early modern England. The Challenges of Orpheus confronts widespread assumptions about lyric, exploring such topics as its relationship to its audiences, the impact of material conditions of production and other cultural pressures, lyric's negotiations of gender, and the interactions and tensions between lyric and narrative.
Offering fresh perspectives on major texts of the period-from Wyatt's "My lute awake" to Milton's Nativity Ode-as well as poems by lesser-known figures, Dubrow extends her critical conclusions to poetry in other historical periods and to the relationship between creative writers and critics, recommending new directions for the study of lyric and of genre.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
File size
2,56 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-9613-2 (9780801896132)
DOI
10.1353/book.20655
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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08/2011
Johns Hopkins University Press
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Book
03/2008
Johns Hopkins University Press
€76.33
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Person
Heather Dubrow is the John D. Boyd, S.J., Chair in the Poetic Imagination at Fordham University.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Rhetoric of Lyric: Definitions, Descriptions, Disputations
2. The Domain of Echo: Lyric Audiences
3. The Craft of Pygmalion: Immediacy and Distancing
4. The Predilections of Proteus: Size and Structure
5. The Myth of Janus: Lyric and/or Narrative
6. The Rhetorics of Lyric: Conclusions and New Perspectives
Notes
Index
Introduction
1. The Rhetoric of Lyric: Definitions, Descriptions, Disputations
2. The Domain of Echo: Lyric Audiences
3. The Craft of Pygmalion: Immediacy and Distancing
4. The Predilections of Proteus: Size and Structure
5. The Myth of Janus: Lyric and/or Narrative
6. The Rhetorics of Lyric: Conclusions and New Perspectives
Notes
Index
