1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910462100803321

Autore

Helfer Rebeca <1969->

Titolo

Spenser's ruins and the art of recollection / / Rebeca Helfer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 2012

©2012

ISBN

1-4426-6057-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (406 p.)

Disciplina

809.93353

Soggetti

Memory in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface: Preamble to Ruin -- Chapter One. Spenser's Complaints: The Fall of Troy, the Ruin of Rome, and the Art of Recollection -- Chapter Two. The Death of the "New Poete": Ruin and Recollection in The Shepheardes Calender -- Chapter Three. The Ruines of Time and the Art of Recollection -- Chapter Four. "The Methode of a Poet Historical [and] . . . an Historiographer": Recollecting the Past in the 1590 Faerie Queene -- Chapter Five. Golden Age Recollections: Prehistory as Present in Spenser's Later Work -- Conclusion: Misprision and Freedom: Ruining and Recollecting the Bower of Bliss -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

What is the art of memory? Rebeca Helfer&apos;s intertextual study Spenser&apos;s Ruins and the Art of Recollection offers a fresh perspective on the significance of this ancient mnemonic technique to Edmund Spenser&apos;s writing and, through this lens, explores the art's complex historical and literary reception.Beginning with the origins of mnemonic strategies in epic tales, Helfer examines how the art of memory speaks to debates about poetry and its place in culture from Plato to Spenser's present day. As Helfer argues, ruins provide memorial spaces for an ongoing dialogue about how story relates to history, and how both relate to edification and empire-building.Through detailed, intertextual readings of The Shepheardes Calender, The Faerie Queene, the Complaints, and other Spenserian works, Helfer



demonstrates how the art of memory shapes Spenser's theory and practice of poetry as well as his political view, throughout his career. More broadly, Spenser&apos;s Ruins and the Art of Recollection points to new ways of understanding the importance of this art within literary studies.