John Skelton and Poetic Authority: Defining the Liberty to Speak (Oxford English Monographs) - Hardcover

Griffiths, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019927360X ISBN 13: 9780199273607

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2006

Synopsis

John Skelton and Poetic Authority is the first book-length study of Skelton for almost twenty years, and the first to trace the roots of his poetic theory to his practice as a writer and translator. It demonstrates that much of what has been found challenging in his work may be attributed to his attempt to reconcile existing views of the poet's role in society with discoveries about the writing process itself. The result is a highly idiosyncratic poetics that locates the poet's authority decisively within his own person, yet at the same time predicates his 'liberty to speak' upon the existence of an engaged, imaginative audience. Skelton is frequently treated as a maverick, but this book places his theory and practice firmly in the context of later sixteenth as well as fifteenth-century traditions. Focusing on his relations with both past and present readers, it reassess his place in the English literary canon.

About this title

Review:

...this book deserves a large audience, not only among Skelton specialists but among all those with a genuine interest in early modern English literature and culture. (Gabriela Schmidt Anglia)

Her blending of the creative and the scholarly results in a richly suggestive work. (A.S.G. Edwards, Times Literary Supplement)

takes a big stride forward: one begins to fell that we - she [Griffiths]- may at last have got him [Skelton] sorted. (Helen Cooper, London Review of Books)

This book has many strengths, not least of which are its fresh and challenging readings of a number of major poems...a valuable contribution to Skelton scholarship (Medium Aevum, LXXVI)

About the Author:

Jane Griffiths was born in Exeter but brought up in Holland. After reading English at Oxford, where her poem 'The House' won the Newdigate Prize, she worked as a bookbinder and lecturer in London and Norfolk. She subsequently returned to Oxford, where she completed her doctorate on John Skelton and worked as an assistant editor on the Oxford English Dictionary. She now teaches English at St Edmund Hall.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 019927360X
• ISBN 13: 9780199273607
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 226