The Poetics of Conversion in Early Modern English Literature: Verse and Change from Donne to Dryden - Hardcover

Murray, Molly

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521113873 ISBN 13: 9780521113878

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Christians in post-Reformation England inhabited a culture of conversion. Required to choose among rival forms of worship, many would cross - and often recross - the boundary between Protestantism and Catholicism. This study considers the poetry written by such converts, from the reign of Elizabeth I to that of James II, concentrating on four figures: John Donne, William Alabaster, Richard Crashaw, and John Dryden. Murray offers a context for each poet's conversion within the era's polemical and controversial literature. She also elaborates on the formal features of the poems themselves, demonstrating how the language of poetry could express both spiritual and ecclesiastical change with particular vividness and power. Proposing conversion as a catalyst for some of the most innovative devotional poetry of the period, both canonical and uncanonical, this study will be of interest to all specialists in early modern English literature.

About this title

About the Author

Molly Murray is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She has published articles on medieval and Renaissance literature and culture in English Literary History, Studies in English Literature, and a variety of edited collections, including Catholic Culture in Early Modern England, edited by Ronald Corthell, Frances Dolan, Christopher Highley, and Arthur Marotti (2007).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521113873
• ISBN 13: 9780521113878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218