The Emergence of the English Author: Scripting the Life of the Poet in Early Modern England

Kevin Pask

ISBN 10: 0521020921 / ISBN 13: 9780521020923

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2005

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Emergence of the English Author: Scripting the Life of the Poet in Early Modern England
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521020921
• ISBN 13: 9780521020923
• Binding: Paperback / softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 380 grams

About this title

Synopsis

The historical construction of literary authorship has long been of particular interest to literary scholars. Yet an important aspect of the historical emergence of the author - the literary biography or 'life of the poet' - has received scant attention. In The Emergence of the English Author, Kevin Pask studies the early life-narratives of five now-canonical English poets: Geoffrey Chaucer, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, John Donne and John Milton. By attending to the changing shape of the lives of these poets, Pask produces a history of the developing conception of literary authorship in England from the late medieval period to the end of the eighteenth century, and offers a long-term sociological account of literary production. His book is the first full-scale history of the cultural construction of literary authority in early modern England.

Review

'... a theoretically well-informed and valuable study.' Forum for Modern Language Studies

'This eloquently written and informative book will surely come to be regarded as essential reading for all those interested in the development of the concept of poetic authorship in early modern England.' New Theatre Quarterly