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
Results 1-5 of 78
Page vii
... problems that it will be useful to describe briefly here so as to clarify the arguments that follow and to indicate their relevance to scholars working in different historical periods, cultural contexts, disciplines, or media. In its ...
... problems that it will be useful to describe briefly here so as to clarify the arguments that follow and to indicate their relevance to scholars working in different historical periods, cultural contexts, disciplines, or media. In its ...
Page viii
... problems of representation in its different modes and conventions: the intricate problem of how meaning occurs. A central concern of the book is thus with the semiotic aspects of knowledge production and on the different conventions ...
... problems of representation in its different modes and conventions: the intricate problem of how meaning occurs. A central concern of the book is thus with the semiotic aspects of knowledge production and on the different conventions ...
Page 3
... problems of theatrical representation in terms that derived not simply from neo-classical literary theory, as is often presumed of playwrights such as Ben Jonson, nor simply from the legacy of medieval staging and the Tudor interludes ...
... problems of theatrical representation in terms that derived not simply from neo-classical literary theory, as is often presumed of playwrights such as Ben Jonson, nor simply from the legacy of medieval staging and the Tudor interludes ...
Page 4
... problems that an action of such scope and diversity implied. In Babylon the Sultan describes to Fortunatus his collection of occult and mythological devices, from which he might choose in exchange for his magic purse the ball of gold ...
... problems that an action of such scope and diversity implied. In Babylon the Sultan describes to Fortunatus his collection of occult and mythological devices, from which he might choose in exchange for his magic purse the ball of gold ...
Page 6
... Speculum Topographicum; or, The Topographicall Glass (1611), a practical compendium of military and civil surveying problems, with a remarkable image that translates Dekker's analogy into its exact cartographic 6 Introduction.
... Speculum Topographicum; or, The Topographicall Glass (1611), a practical compendium of military and civil surveying problems, with a remarkable image that translates Dekker's analogy into its exact cartographic 6 Introduction.
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