Robert Southwell: Snow in Arcadia: redrawing the English lyric landscape, 1586–95 - Softcover

Sweeney, Anne R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719085675 ISBN 13: 9780719085673

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2011

Synopsis

Robert Southwell's poetic view of Spenser's, Signey's and Shakespeare's England is a cold one.

About this title

About the Author

Anne R. Sweeney teaches English at Lancaster University. Her interests include renaissance art and literature and writing poetry

From the Back Cover

It has traditionally been held that Robert Southwell's poetry offers a curious view of Elizabethan England, one that is from the restricted perspective of a priest-hole. This book dismantles that idea by examining the poetry, word by word, discovering layers of new meanings, hidden emblems, and sharp critiques of Elizabeth's courtiers, and even of the ageing queen herself.

Using both the most recent edition of Southwell's poetry and manuscript materials, it addresses both poetry and private writings including letters and diary material to give dramatic context to the radicalisation of a generation of Southwell's countrymen and women, showing how the young Jesuit harnessed both drama and literature to give new poetic poignancy to their experience.

Bringing a rigorously forensic approach to Southwell's 'lighter' pieces, Sweeney can now show to what extent Southwell engaged exclusively through them in direct artistic debate with Spenser, Sidney, and Shakespeare, placing the poetry firmly in the English landscape familiar to Southwell's generation. Those interested in early modern and Elizabethan culture will find much of interest, including new insights into the function of the arts in the private Catholic milieu touched by Southwell in so many ways and places.

From the Inside Flap

It has traditionally been held that Robert Southwell s poetry offers a curious view of Elizabethan England, one that is from the restricted perspective of a priest-hole. This book dismantles that idea by examining the poetry, word by word, discovering layers of new meanings, hidden emblems, and sharp critiques of Elizabeth s courtiers, and even of the ageing queen herself.Using both the most recent edition of Southwell s poetry and manuscript materials, it addresses both poetry and private writings including letters and diary material to give dramatic context to the radicalisation of a generation of Southwell s countrymen and women, showing how the young Jesuit harnessed both drama and literature to give new poetic poignancy to their experience. Bringing a rigorously forensic approach to Southwell s lighter pieces, Sweeney can now show to what extent Southwell engaged exclusively through them in direct artistic debate with Spenser, Sidney, and Shakespeare, placing the poetry firmly in the English landscape familiar to Southwell s generation. Those interested in early modern and Elizabethan culture will find much of interest, including new insights into the function of the arts in the private Catholic milieu touched by Southwell in so many ways and places.

Edition details

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719085675
• ISBN 13: 9780719085673
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 321