The English Renaissance
Identity and Representation in Elizabethan England
1. Auflage Oktober 1997
252 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
ISBN:
978-0-631-19029-5
John Wiley & Sons
This book reassesses Renaissance English literature and its place in Elizabethan society. It examines, in particular, the role of Italianate literary imitation in addressing the ethical and political issues of the sixteenth century.
Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
1. The Reception of Italian Literary Culture: Motives and
Dynamics.
2. Wyatt, Surrey, and the Onset of English Petrarchism.
3. Elizabethan Petrarchism and the Protestant Location of
Self.
4. Ethic and Politic Considerations: Spenser, Sidney, and the
Uses of Italianate Pastoral.
5. Epic and the Formation of National Identity: Ariosto, Tasso,
and The Faerie Queene.
6. Appraising 'The Seeming Truths' of the Times: the Italianate
Plays of Shakespeare.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.
Index.
Introduction.
1. The Reception of Italian Literary Culture: Motives and
Dynamics.
2. Wyatt, Surrey, and the Onset of English Petrarchism.
3. Elizabethan Petrarchism and the Protestant Location of
Self.
4. Ethic and Politic Considerations: Spenser, Sidney, and the
Uses of Italianate Pastoral.
5. Epic and the Formation of National Identity: Ariosto, Tasso,
and The Faerie Queene.
6. Appraising 'The Seeming Truths' of the Times: the Italianate
Plays of Shakespeare.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.
Index.
"Fox's clear style suits his difficult material. This is one of few
recent works treating Italian influence in detail with a good
command of the evidence as well as a fresh point of view. Strongly
recommended for graduates, researchers, and faculty." Choice
'Alistair Fox offers a new and compelling version of the
literary culture of Tudor England, one that finds its defining
qualities in the complex interactions of English Protestantism and
Italian humanism. If a full synthesis of the two systems finally
proved impossible for English writers, Fox impressively shows how
their brave effort to achieve it animates the most important
imaginative literature of the period.' - David Scott
Kastan, Professor of English and Comparative Literature,
Columbia University
'The English Renaissance registers how the secular
narratives of Catholic culture were reinvented by England's
new Protestant culture. It shows the English writing of Sidney,
Spenser and Shakespeare undergoing a rebirth out of its Italian
sources. In the process it fully justifies Alistair Fox's
re-application of the term "Renaissance" to the products of this
fertile period.' - Professor Andrew Gurr, Department
of English, University of Reading
recent works treating Italian influence in detail with a good
command of the evidence as well as a fresh point of view. Strongly
recommended for graduates, researchers, and faculty." Choice
'Alistair Fox offers a new and compelling version of the
literary culture of Tudor England, one that finds its defining
qualities in the complex interactions of English Protestantism and
Italian humanism. If a full synthesis of the two systems finally
proved impossible for English writers, Fox impressively shows how
their brave effort to achieve it animates the most important
imaginative literature of the period.' - David Scott
Kastan, Professor of English and Comparative Literature,
Columbia University
'The English Renaissance registers how the secular
narratives of Catholic culture were reinvented by England's
new Protestant culture. It shows the English writing of Sidney,
Spenser and Shakespeare undergoing a rebirth out of its Italian
sources. In the process it fully justifies Alistair Fox's
re-application of the term "Renaissance" to the products of this
fertile period.' - Professor Andrew Gurr, Department
of English, University of Reading
Alistair Fox was educated at the University of Canterbury (MA) and the University of Western Ontario, where he took his doctorate as a Commonwealth Scholar. He has held visiting fellowships at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and All Souls College, Oxford, and is currently Professor of English at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His previous books include Thomas More: History and Providence (1982); Reassessing the Henrician Age: Humanism, Politics, and Reform, 1500-1550 (with John Guy) (1986); Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII (1989); and Utopia: An Elusive Vision (1993).
