Guilty creatures : Renaissance poetry and the ethics of authorship
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Bibliographic Information
Guilty creatures : Renaissance poetry and the ethics of authorship
(Oxford paperbacks)
Oxford University Press, 2011, c2001
- : pbk
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Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This study examines how Renaissance poets conceive the theme of killing as a specifically representational and interpretive form of violence. Closely reading both major poets and lesser known authors, Dennis Kezar explores the ethical self-consciousness and accountability that attend literary killing, paying particular attention to the ways in which this reflection indicates the poet's understanding of his audience. Kezar explores the concept of authorial guilt
elicited by violent representation in poems including Skelton's Phyllyp Sparowe, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the multi-authored Witch of Edmonton, and Milton's Samson Agonistes. In each case, he reflects on the poetic process and explores the ethical ramifications for both author
and audience. In emphasizing the social, literary, and historical consequences of 'killing poems,' this volume further advances scholarship in historicist and speech-act theories of the early modern period.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Courting Heresy and Taking the Subject: John Skelton's Precedent
- 2 Spenser and the Poetics of Indiscretion
- 3 The Properties of Shakespeare's Globe
- 4 The Witch of Edmonton and the Guilt of Possession
- 5 Samson's Death by Theater and Milton's Art of Dying
- 6 Guilt and the Constitution of Authorship in Henry V and the Antitheatrical Elegies of W.S. and Milton
- Index
by "Nielsen BookData"