1611: Authority, Gender and the Word in Early Modern England

ISBN-13: 9781405193917 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 272 str.

Helen Wilcox

Opis

1611: Authority, Gender, and the Word in Early Modern England explores issues of authority, gender, and language within and across the variety of literary works produced in one of most landmark years in literary and cultural history.

• Represents an exploration of a year in the textual life of early modern England
• Juxtaposes the variety and range of texts that were published, performed, read, or heard in the same year, 1611
• Offers an account of the textual culture of the year 1611, the environment of language, and the ideas from which the Authorised Version of the English Bible emerged

Spis treści

Preface ix

Acknowledgements x

List of Illustrations xii

Chronology of Selected Historical, Cultural and Textual Events in 1611 xiii

Introduction: ′The omnipotency of the word′ 1

1 Jonson′s Oberon and friends: masque and music in 1611 24

2 Aemilia Lanyer and the ′fi rst fruits′ of women′s wit 44

3 Coryats Crudities and the ′travelling Wonder′ of the age 68

4 Time, tyrants and the question of authority: The Winter′s Tale and related drama 91

5 ′Expresse words′: Lancelot Andrewes and the sermons and devotions of 1611 112

6 The Roaring Girl on and off stage 132

7 ′The new world of words′: authorising translation in 1611 151

8 Donne′s ′Anatomy′ and the commemoration of women: ′her death hath taught us dearly′ 174

9 Vengeance and virtue: The Tempest and the triumph of tragicomedy 192

Conclusion: ′This scribling age′ 211

Appendix: A List of Printed Texts Published in 1611 219

Bibliography 225

Index 244

O autorze

Helen Wilcox is Professor of English at Bangor University, Wales, and Director of the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the Universities of Aberystwyth and Bangor. Her most recent major publication was the highly–acclaimed annotated edition of The English Poems of George Herbert (2007).

Blurb

English literature and culture underwent transformative changes during the years following the death of Queen Elizabeth. Fundamental issues of identity informed by issues such as religious anxieties and debates on gender were being addressed for the first time by writers, poets, and playwrights of early 17th century England. 1611: Authority, Gender, and the Word in Early Modern England presents a lively and accessible account of the textual cultures of a landmark year in literary and cultural history. Author and literary scholar Helen Wilcox reveals the stunning range of texts that emerged in 1611, from the publication of the King James Bible and George Chapman′s new translation of Homer to the first printed works of poet John Donne and a selection of poems by Aemelia Lanyer, the first such volume in English written by a woman. Wilcox explores the wide range of literary styles and genres produced in this banner year –– from travel–writing, madrigals, satires, and almanacs to sermons, drama, and orations –– and delves deeply into issues of authority, gender, and language within and across the different works. By presenting a frozen moment in time in our literary past, 1611: Authority, Gender and the Word in Early Modern England offers a rich and vivid sense of the depth, range, and power of the textual world of 17th–century England.