The English Renaissance Stage: Geometry, Poetics, and the Practical Spatial Arts 1580-1630OUP Oxford, 2006 M02 23 - 344 pages Drawing on entirely new evidence, The English Renaissance Stage: Geometry, Poetics, and the Practical Spatial Arts 1580-1630 examines the history of English dramatic form and its relationship to the mathematics, technology, and early scientific thought during the Renaissance period. The book demonstrates how practical modes of thinking that were typical of the sixteenth century resulted in new genres of plays and a new vocabulary for problems of poetic representation. In the epistemological moment the book recovers, we find new ideas about form and language that would become central to Renaissance literary discourse; in this same moment, too, we find new ways of thinking about the relationship between theory and practice that are typical of modernity, new attitudes towards spatial representation, and a new interest in both poetics and mathematics as distinctive ways of producing knowledge about the world. By emphasizing the importance of theatrical performance, the book engages with continuing debates over the cultural function of the early modern stage and with scholarship on the status of modern authorship. When we consider playwrights in relation to the theatre rather than the printed book, they appear less as 'authors' than as figures whose social position and epistemological presuppositions were very similar to the craftsmen, surveyors, and engineers who began to flourish during the sixteenth century and whose mathematical knowledge made them increasingly sought after by men of wealth and power. |
From inside the book
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Page vi
... figure on page ii and Figures 4.1, 4.7,4.8, and 7.1 are reproduced by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library; Figure 5.1 is reproduced by kind permission of the Governors of Dulwich College; Figures 6.3 and 6.4 are reproduced by ...
... figure on page ii and Figures 4.1, 4.7,4.8, and 7.1 are reproduced by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library; Figure 5.1 is reproduced by kind permission of the Governors of Dulwich College; Figures 6.3 and 6.4 are reproduced by ...
Page 4
... figure of Fortune offers Old Fortunatus, a Cypriot and the play's title character, a magic purse of infinite riches with which to travel through all of Asia and Europe and which he passes to his son upon his death. Like Christopher ...
... figure of Fortune offers Old Fortunatus, a Cypriot and the play's title character, a magic purse of infinite riches with which to travel through all of Asia and Europe and which he passes to his son upon his death. Like Christopher ...
Page 6
... figure, for a mathematical syntax of purely formal and proportional relationships. As a consequence, geometry may be ... figures—like the theatre, in which objects, actions, and bodies exceed themselves to become ostensive, performative ...
... figure, for a mathematical syntax of purely formal and proportional relationships. As a consequence, geometry may be ... figures—like the theatre, in which objects, actions, and bodies exceed themselves to become ostensive, performative ...
Page 10
... figure may Attest in little place a million, And let us, ciphers to this great account, On your imaginary forces work. Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confined two mighty monarchies, Whose high uprearèd and abutting ...
... figure may Attest in little place a million, And let us, ciphers to this great account, On your imaginary forces work. Suppose within the girdle of these walls Are now confined two mighty monarchies, Whose high uprearèd and abutting ...
Page 11
... figures and whose names we may no longer recognize at all: John Dee, Thomas Harriot, John Blagrave, and Leonard Digges, those 'mathematical practitioners', as E. G. R. Taylor has called them, whose knowledge of mathematics and expertise ...
... figures and whose names we may no longer recognize at all: John Dee, Thomas Harriot, John Blagrave, and Leonard Digges, those 'mathematical practitioners', as E. G. R. Taylor has called them, whose knowledge of mathematics and expertise ...
Other editions - View all
The English Renaissance Stage:Geometry, Poetics, and the Practical Spatial ... Henry S. Turner No preview available - 2006 |
The English Renaissance Stage: Geometry, Poetics, and the Practical Spatial ... Henry S. Turner No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
action analysis appear argues argument Aristotle arts aspects authority become building century Chapter character cited classical contemporary conventions critical Dekker demonstrate derived describe discussion distinct draw early early-modern effect English entire epistemological field figure finally follows formal geometry George Puttenham Harvey iconic ideas imagination important interest invention Jonson kind knowledge language later lines literary London mathematical matter meaning measurement mechanical methods mode nature necessary notion object offers particular passage performance period philosophy play plot poesy poet poetic position possible practical principles printed problems production provides reader reading reasoning reference relationship remains representation requires rhetoric rules scene sense Sidney Sidney’s signified similar simply social space spatial specific stage structure techniques theatre theatrical things thinking thought translation units universal writing