Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance by David Norbrook

Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance by David Norbrook

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Summary

This title establishes the radical currents of thought shaping Renaissance poetry: civic humanism and apocalyptic Protestantism. The author shows how Elizabethan poets like Sidney and Spenser, often seen as conservative monarchists, responded powerfully if sometimes ambivalently to radical ideas.

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Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance by David Norbrook

For this edition David Norbrook has provided an extensive introduction which gives an overview of developments in methodology and research since the first edition in 1984, responds to some criticisms, and points the way to further inquiry. Footnotes have been updated to take account of the current state of knowledge, and a chronological table has been provided for ease of reference. Norbrook brings out the range and adventurousness of early modern poets' engagements with the public world. The first part of the book establishes the more radical currents of thought shaping Renaissance poetry: civic humanism and apocalyptic Protestantism. Norbrook then shows how such leading Elizabethan poets as Sidney and Spenser, often seen as conservative monarchists, responded powerfully though sometimes ambivalently to more radical ideas. A chapter on Fulke Greville shows how that ambivalence reaches an extreme in some remarkable poetry.
He aims to correct the distortions of history we have all inherited, and in bringing off that ambition he has written a book of exceptional interestNothing he discusses will be quite the same again ... This bold, finely researched and well-written book should have a decisive effect on our thinking about the poetry of the English Renaissance. * Frank Kermode,Times Literary Supplement *
The strengths of Norbrook's argument are considerable ... connections between early and later Tudor literatures, and between Elizabethan and Stuart periods, emerge vividly. * Katharine Eisaman Maus, Western Humanities Review *
successfully ambitious ... This book makes better sense than any I know of the relation of poetry in this period to the pre-revolutionary world in which the poets lived. * Christopher Hill, Notes and Queries *
valuable insistence on political content ... Norbrook is far too subtle a critic to imagine that his writers used art merely as a vehicle for political opinions. * Blair Worden, London Review of Books *
He aims to correct the distortions of history we have all inherited, and in bringing off that ambition he has written a book of exceptional interest. Nothing he discusses will be quite the same again ... This bold, finely researched and well-written book should have a decisive effect on our thinking about the poetry of the English Renaissance. * Frank Kermode, Times Literary Supplement *
This is a successfully ambitious book ... makes better sense than any I know of the relation of poetry in this period to the pre-revolutionary world in which the poets lived. * Christopher Hill, Notes and Queries *
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780199247189
ISBN 10 0199247188
Title Poetry and Politics in the English Renaissance
Author David Norbrook
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Oxford University Press
Year published 2002-09-05
Number of pages 348
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.