Ovid and the Liberty of Speech in Shakespeare's England

Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-1-108-48762-7
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 320 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 585 g

The range of poetic invention that occurred in Renaissance English literature was vast, from the lyric eroticism of the late sixteenth century to the rise of libertinism in the late seventeenth century. Heather James argues that Ovid, as the poet-philosopher of literary innovation and free speech, was the galvanizing force behind this extraordinary level of poetic creativity. Moving beyond mere topicality, she identifies the ingenuity, novelty and audacity of the period's poetry as the political inverse of censorship culture. Considering Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Milton and Wharton among many others, the book explains how free speech was extended into the growing domain of English letters, and thereby presents a new model of the relationship between early modern poetry and political philosophy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

James, Heather

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Flower power: political discontents in Spenser's flowerbeds; 2. Loving Ovid: Marlowe and the liberties of erotic elegy; 3. Shakespeare's Juliet: the Ovidian girlhood of the boy actor; 4. In pursuit of change: the Metamorphoses in A Midsummer Night's Dream; 5. The trial of Ovid: Jonson's defense of poetic liberty.

Über Autor(innen)

James, Heather
Heather James is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California, and President of the Shakespeare Association of America, 2016–2017.