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 8
... passages have been much cited in criticism on the geographical imagination of the early-modern period, but with little acknowledgement of its roots in practical modes of thinking; see esp. Seaton (1924, 1929); Greenblatt (1980: 193–221); ...
... passages have been much cited in criticism on the geographical imagination of the early-modern period, but with little acknowledgement of its roots in practical modes of thinking; see esp. Seaton (1924, 1929); Greenblatt (1980: 193–221); ...
Page 9
... passages formed part of the later additions for which Dekker was paid a total of £9 during November–December 1599 for 'the hole history of Fortunatus' and 'the eande of Fortewnatus for the corte'; see Chambers (1923: iii. 291). If the ...
... passages formed part of the later additions for which Dekker was paid a total of £9 during November–December 1599 for 'the hole history of Fortunatus' and 'the eande of Fortewnatus for the corte'; see Chambers (1923: iii. 291). If the ...
Page 11
... passages of Dekker, Shakespeare, and Jonson, each written in the same year and each conspicuous in its attempt to justify the conventions of the platform stage—Gabriel Harvey was already naming Chaucer, Lydgate, Sidney, and Spenser in ...
... passages of Dekker, Shakespeare, and Jonson, each written in the same year and each conspicuous in its attempt to justify the conventions of the platform stage—Gabriel Harvey was already naming Chaucer, Lydgate, Sidney, and Spenser in ...
Page 18
... passages. In the book, too, we find bibliographic conventions of pagination and a distribution into Acts and Scenes that segments the action, allowing it to be coordinated into a larger conceptual whole (the 'Work') and making possible ...
... passages. In the book, too, we find bibliographic conventions of pagination and a distribution into Acts and Scenes that segments the action, allowing it to be coordinated into a larger conceptual whole (the 'Work') and making possible ...
Page 40
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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