1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910787767303321

Autore

Munro Lucy

Titolo

Archaic style in English literature, 1590-1674 / / Lucy Munro [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2013

ISBN

1-107-46192-8

1-139-89358-0

1-107-45975-3

1-107-47257-1

1-107-46542-7

1-107-46896-5

1-107-33748-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 308 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

820.9/003

Soggetti

English literature - Early modern, 1500-1700 - History and criticism

English language - Early modern, 1500-1700 - Style

English language - Archaisms

English language - Style

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Preface -- Abbreviations -- Introduction : conceptualising archaism -- Within our own memory : old English and the early modern poet -- Chaucer, Gower, and the anxiety of obsolescence -- Archaic style in religious writing: immutability, controversy, prophecy -- Staging generations: archaism and the theatrical past -- Shepherds' speech : archaism and early Stuart pastoral drama -- Archaism and the 'English' epic -- Coda : looking backward, looking forward.

Sommario/riassunto

Ranging from the works of Shakespeare, Spenser, Jonson and Milton to those of Robert Southwell and Anna Trapnel, this groundbreaking study explores the conscious use of archaic style by the poets and dramatists between 1590 and 1674. It focuses on the wide-ranging, complex and self-conscious uses of archaic linguistic and poetic style, analysing the uses to which writers put literary style in order to re-embody and



reshape the past. Munro brings together scholarly conversations on temporality, memory and historiography, on the relationships between medieval and early modern literary cultures, on the workings of dramatic and poetic style, and on national history and identity. Neither pure anachronism nor pure nostalgia, the attempts of writers to reconstruct outmoded styles within their own works reveal a largely untold story about the workings of literary influence and tradition, the interactions between past and present, and the uncertain contours of English nationhood.