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 1
... early-modern plays; indeed, the discursive turn typical of new historicism has had the happy effect of widening the purview of the critic, who now finds in the language of the drama a rich and eclectic palimpsest of contemporary ...
... early-modern plays; indeed, the discursive turn typical of new historicism has had the happy effect of widening the purview of the critic, who now finds in the language of the drama a rich and eclectic palimpsest of contemporary ...
Page 2
... earlymodern plays. In several important ways, too, attention to the performative nature of early-modern drama became a hallmark of the Foucauldian and Marxist-derived critiques of new historicism, particularly in the early work of ...
... earlymodern plays. In several important ways, too, attention to the performative nature of early-modern drama became a hallmark of the Foucauldian and Marxist-derived critiques of new historicism, particularly in the early work of ...
Page 3
... contemporary developments in early-modern technology, applied mathematics, and pre-scientific thought. As Thomas Dekker observed in his Old Fortunatus (1599), performed both at court and at Philip Henslowe's Rose Theatre, playwrights ...
... contemporary developments in early-modern technology, applied mathematics, and pre-scientific thought. As Thomas Dekker observed in his Old Fortunatus (1599), performed both at court and at Philip Henslowe's Rose Theatre, playwrights ...
Page 6
... early-modern writers nothing less than an entire system of representation to rival that of language, whereby all bodies, places, and ideas, no matter how distinct, might be rendered conceptually equivalent to one another. As the ...
... early-modern writers nothing less than an entire system of representation to rival that of language, whereby all bodies, places, and ideas, no matter how distinct, might be rendered conceptually equivalent to one another. As the ...
Page 8
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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