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 viii
... spaces, to demonstrate how contemporary modes of practical thinking influenced aspects of English dramatic form. It should perhaps go without saying that I am not proposing geometry and the practical spatial arts as the only influences ...
... spaces, to demonstrate how contemporary modes of practical thinking influenced aspects of English dramatic form. It should perhaps go without saying that I am not proposing geometry and the practical spatial arts as the only influences ...
Page 5
... space, time, and the conventional properties of bodies so easily? How to defend, if necessary, the theatre against the scepticism of audiences, the disdain of critics, and the accusations of authorities? These were some of the most ...
... space, time, and the conventional properties of bodies so easily? How to defend, if necessary, the theatre against the scepticism of audiences, the disdain of critics, and the accusations of authorities? These were some of the most ...
Page 8
... space—that could never be grasped by the naked eye alone, even as it renders these heterogeneous places comparable and similar, much the way the stage could do. Jerusalem, Rome, Spain, France, America, mountains, rivers: all are ...
... space—that could never be grasped by the naked eye alone, even as it renders these heterogeneous places comparable and similar, much the way the stage could do. Jerusalem, Rome, Spain, France, America, mountains, rivers: all are ...
Page 24
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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