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 6-10 of 91
Page 6
... mathematical syntax of purely formal and proportional relationships. As a consequence, geometry may be described as a tropic discourse for early-modern writers, one in which quantitative rather than qualitative similarity among ...
... mathematical syntax of purely formal and proportional relationships. As a consequence, geometry may be described as a tropic discourse for early-modern writers, one in which quantitative rather than qualitative similarity among ...
Page 8
... , with additional bibliography); Sullivan (1997); Gillies (1994: 52, 56–7, 1998: 203–29, esp. 205, 225); and now Cahill (2004), placing the play firmly in the context of military manuals and practical mathematics. 8 Introduction.
... , with additional bibliography); Sullivan (1997); Gillies (1994: 52, 56–7, 1998: 203–29, esp. 205, 225); and now Cahill (2004), placing the play firmly in the context of military manuals and practical mathematics. 8 Introduction.
Page 9
... mathematics and even lived for a brief period at Gresham College, a London institution founded with the express purpose of offering instruction in applied mathematics and many different technical fields to an urban audience of tradesmen ...
... mathematics and even lived for a brief period at Gresham College, a London institution founded with the express purpose of offering instruction in applied mathematics and many different technical fields to an urban audience of tradesmen ...
Page 10
... mathematical calculation from the audience that is almost identical to the imaginative projection Dekker had also ... mathematical logic of stage representation divides at the same time that it multiplies: the risk of stage mimesis ...
... mathematical calculation from the audience that is almost identical to the imaginative projection Dekker had also ... mathematical logic of stage representation divides at the same time that it multiplies: the risk of stage mimesis ...
Page 11
... mathematical practitioners', as E. G. R. Taylor has called them, whose knowledge of mathematics and expertise in early forms of technology made them increasingly sought after by men of wealth and power. And Harvey might well have added ...
... mathematical practitioners', as E. G. R. Taylor has called them, whose knowledge of mathematics and expertise in early forms of technology made them increasingly sought after by men of wealth and power. And Harvey might well have added ...
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