Dennis Kezar

Guilty Creatures

Renaissance Poetry and the Ethics of Authorship

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

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.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Sydney University Press
• Seitenzahl: 280
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. Mai 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 234mm x 156mm x 15mm
• Gewicht: 395g
• ISBN-13: 9780195397949
• ISBN-10: 0195397940
• Artikelnr.: 33253269

Autorenporträt

Dennis Kezar is Associate Professor of English at the University of Utah. Most recently, he edited Solon and Thespis: Law and Theater in Renaissance England (University of Notre Dame Press).

Inhaltsangabe

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