The Performance of Nobility in Early Modern European Literature

ISBN-13: 9780521661812 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 286 str.

David Matthew Posner; Stephen Orgel; Anne Barton

Opis

This valuable study illuminates the idea of nobility as display, as public performance, in Renaissance and seventeenth-century literature and society. Through detailed readings of major authors, including Castiglione, Montaigne, Bacon and Corneille, David Posner examines the tensions between literary or imaginative representations of "nobility," and the increasingly problematic historical position of the nobility themselves. Situated at the intersection of rhetorical and historical theories of interpretation, this book contributes significantly to our understanding of how literature can both analyze and shape social identity.

Recenzje

"An excellent resource for graduate students, research faculty, and social and literary historians." Choice

Spis treści

Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction: 'The Noble Hart'; 2. Montaigne and the staging of the self; 3. Mask and error in Francis Bacon; 4. Noble Romans: Corneille and the theatre of aristocratic revolt; 5. La Bruyère and the end of the theatre of nobility; Notes; Bibliography; Index.