Early Modern Prose Fiction: The Cultural Politics of Reading

ISBN-13: 9780415358415 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 208 str.

Naomi Conn Liebler

Opis

Early modern prose fiction had a huge impact on the social and economic fabric of the time. It created a new culture of reading and writing for pleasure which became accessible to those previously excluded from such activities (primarily women and the working classes), resulting in a significant challenge to existing class structures.
Each of the essays in this exciting collection considers the reciprocal relation of early modern prose fiction to class distinctions, examining factors such as:
· The impact of prose fiction on the social, political and economic fabric of early modern England
· The way in which a growing emphasis on literacy allowed for increased class mobility and newly flexible notions of class
· How the popularity of reading and the subsequent demand for books led to the production and marketing of books as an industry
· Complications for critics of prose fiction, as it began to be considered an inferior and trivial art form
· The development of the genre of romance fiction and the emerging sense of 'nation' and 'nationalism' that accompanied it
Emphasizing the significance of early modern prose fiction as a hybrid genre that absorbed cultural, ideological, and historical strands of the age, this fascinating study brings together an outstanding cast of critics including: Sheila T. Cavanaugh, Stephen Guy-Bray, Mary Ellen Lamb, Joan Pong Linton, Steve Mentz, Constance C. Relihan, Goran V. Stanivukovic with an afterword from Arthur Kinney.

Recenzje

"Highly recommendable collection." - Anglia

Spis treści

1. Introduction: The Cultural Politics of Reading  2. Day Labor: Thomas Nashe and the Practice of Prose in Early Modern England  3. How to Turn Prose into Literature: the Case of Thomas Nashe  4. Fishwives’ Tales: narrative Agency, Female Subjectivity, and Telling Tales Out of School  5. English Renaissance Romances as Conduct Books for Young Men  6. Mildred, beloved of the Devil, and the Dangers of Excessive Consumption in Riche His Farewell to Militarie Profession  7. What Ish My Nation?: Lady Mary Wroth’s Interrogations of Personal and National Identity  8. Bully St. George: Richard Johnson’s Seven Champions of Christendom and the Creation of a Bourgeois National Hero  9. Counterfeiting Sovereignty, Mocking Mastery: Trickster Poetics and the Critique of Romance in Nashe's Unfortunate Traveler  10. Afterword  11. Works Cited

O autorze

Naomi Conn Liebler is a Professor of English and University Distinguished Scholar at Montclair State University. She has published widely on Shakespeare and other early modern drama, and Modern American and European Drama, including Shakespeare’s Festive Tragedy, 1995.