Tradition and subversion in Renaissance literature
Subtitle: studies in Shakespeare, Spenser, Jonson, and Donne
By: Murray Roston.
Series: Medieval & Renaissance literary studies; Medieval and Renaissance literary studies
Publisher: Duquesne University Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Pittsburgh, Pa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 258
ISBN-13: 9780820703909
Subjects: Shakespeare, William, -- 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation; Spenser, Edmund, -- 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation; Jonson, Ben, -- 1573?-1637 -- Criticism and interpretation; Donne, John, -- 1572-1631 -- Criticism and interpretation; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism; Ambiguity in literature; Intertextuality; Renaissance -- England
Description: "Deconstructionist critics have argued that literary works contain conflicting or contradictory meanings, thus creating an aporia, or impasse, that prevents readers from interpreting the work. Here, however, Murray Roston offers detailed and essentially new analyses of works by Shakespeare, Spenser, Jonson, and Donne, arguing that the seemingly contradictory presence of traditional and subversive elements in their major works actually creates the source of much of their literary achievement." "Chapters explore The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, The Faerie Queene, Volpone, and the Meditations of John Donne, highlighting the creative tension between centripetal and centrifugal factors (borrowing Bakhtin's terms). As Roston demonstrates, this tension exists in a variety of genres, including poetry, epic and drama, and even in religious prose - which, he acknowledges, might be thought to be exempt from such inner conflict because of its doctrinal and theological focus."--BOOK JACKET
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-248) and index.
Table of contents: title: Sacred and secular in The merchant of Venice; title: Hamlet and the stoic; title: Spenser and the pagan gods; title: Volpone, comedy or mordant satire?; title: Donne and the meditative tradition.