The Uses of the Canon: Elizabethan Literature and Contemporary TheoryClarendon, 1990 - 192 pages An important contribution to the current rethinking of "English," and to the reconsideration of Shakespeare's role within it, this book focuses on the emergence of the New Historicism, clarifying a number of key positions in the criticism of the past fifteen years. The essays subject many of New Historicism's most challenging claims to rigorous analysis, distinguish sharply between its American and British versions, and assess the causes and consequences of its politicization of literary studies. The theoretical and political issues at stake in current debates are clearly examined, and the uses served by the canonical texts at their center are re-examined within a broad cultural and historical perspective. Offering fresh readings of a number of classic texts--including Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest, Shakespeare's sonnets, More's Utopia, Donne's poetry, and Conrad's Heart of Darkness--this overview of contemporary critical theory and practice provides a deepened understanding of the complex and changing functions of the canon itself. |
From inside the book
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Page 38
... Leontes is right in supposing his wife has betrayed him . It does seem worth pointing out , however , that in the negative nature of the case as Shakespeare has taken pains to set it up , neither Leontes nor we can ever know for sure ...
... Leontes is right in supposing his wife has betrayed him . It does seem worth pointing out , however , that in the negative nature of the case as Shakespeare has taken pains to set it up , neither Leontes nor we can ever know for sure ...
Page 41
... Leontes ' jealous and destructive passion is not quite so flimsy and fanciful , so unfounded and ' out of the blue ' as is often casually assumed . Consider the tortured monologues in which Leontes discloses his jealousy to us . Since ...
... Leontes ' jealous and destructive passion is not quite so flimsy and fanciful , so unfounded and ' out of the blue ' as is often casually assumed . Consider the tortured monologues in which Leontes discloses his jealousy to us . Since ...
Page 44
... Leontes also makes clear , to behaviour anything but innocent . The more closely we attend to the language of Polixenes and Hermione , the more we may detect in it ( like Leontes again ) a whisper of sexual innuendo . Can Polixenes ...
... Leontes also makes clear , to behaviour anything but innocent . The more closely we attend to the language of Polixenes and Hermione , the more we may detect in it ( like Leontes again ) a whisper of sexual innuendo . Can Polixenes ...
Contents
Romance and Romanticism | 16 |
Marlowe our Contemporary | 100 |
Early Utopian Discourse | 122 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
The Uses of the Canon: Elizabethan Literature and Contemporary Theory Howard Felperin No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
absolute play allegory authentic authority Barker and Hulme Caliban canonical text century claim classic Coleridge colonial discourse construction contemporary context conventionalism criticism dark deconstruction demystification discursive con-texts dominant Donne Donne's dramatic edition Elizabethan empirical empiricism English essays F. R. Leavis foreground Frye Greenblatt Hamlet Heart of Darkness hermeneutic historical historicism historicists ideological institutional interpretation interpretive communities L. C. Knights language Leontes less linguistic literary studies literature London Malone Marlovian Marlowe Marlowe's Marxist meaning Methuen mimetic modern myth naïve nature new-critical new-historicist object older once paradox poet poetry political Polixenes position post-structuralism post-structuralist potential practices present problem Prospero's question radical re-inscription reading realism relativism Renaissance Renaissance Self-Fashioning representation represented rhetorical romance Sarracoll Sarracoll's seems sense Shakespeare Shakespeare's plays signified social Sonnets Stephen Greenblatt structuralist structure Tempest textualist textuality of history theatre theatrical tion tradition University Press Utopia Winter's Tale writing