Early Modern Prose Fiction: The Cultural Politics of Reading PDF
Preview Early Modern Prose Fiction: The Cultural Politics of Reading
Early Modern Prose Fiction Thestudyofearlymodernprosefictionoffersinvaluableinsightinto the culture of the period and is quickly becoming one of the most excitingareasofcurrentliteraryresearch.Bringingtogethermultiple strands of recent scholarship, Early Modern Prose Fiction formulates afresh the critical and historical context in which this crucial genre mightbeunderstoodandoffersbothasurveyofthefieldandincisive analysisofkeyauthorsandtexts. Sharingtheviewthatprosefictionhadasignificantimpactonthe social, political and economic fabric of early modern England, the essaysinthisvolumeexaminesuchissuesas: • links between the emergence of the genre and a new culture of reading and writing for pleasure, accessible for the first time to thosepreviouslyexcludedfromsuchactivities,particularlywomen andtheworkingclasses • the challenge this new culture represented to existing social structures,asagrowingemphasisonliteracyallowedforincreased classmobilityandnewlyflexiblenotionsofclass • therelationshipbetweenprosefictionandtheriseofapublishing andbook-marketingindustry,duetotheincreasedpopularityof reading • the development of romance fiction and the emerging sense of ‘nation’and‘nationalism’thataccompaniedit • changing critical views of prose fiction, and the beginnings of a tendencytoconsideritaninferiorortrivialartform. What emerges is a compelling perspective on a sometimes ne- glected genre: early modern prose fiction in reciprocal relation to classdistinctions,andasahybridgenrethatabsorbedcultural,ideo- logical, and historical strands of the age. Early Modern Prose Fiction is ii EarlyModernProseFiction a convincing case for the significance of the form and an important studyforanyscholarorstudentofearlymodernEnglishculture. Naomi Conn Liebler is a Professor of English and University Dis- tinguished Scholar at Montclair State University. She has published widely on Shakespeare and other early modern drama, and Mod- ern American and European Drama, including Shakespeare’s Festive Tragedy,1995. Contributing authors include Sheila T.Cavanagh, Stephen Guy- Bray,MaryEllenLamb,JoanPongLinton,SteveMentz,ConstanceC. Relihan,GoranV.Stanivukovic,andthevolumeincludesanafterword byArthurKinney. Early Modern Prose Fiction The cultural politics of reading Naomi Conn Liebler Firstpublished2007 byRoutledge 270MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016 SimultaneouslypublishedintheUK byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” ©2007NaomiConnLiebler AllRightsReserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedor reproducedorutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic, mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownorhereafter invented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinany informationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissionin writingfromthepublishers. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Acataloguerecordforthisbookisavailable fromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Acatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenrequested ISBN 0-203-00458-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10:0-415-35840-X(hbk) ISBN10:0-415-35841-8(pbk) ISBN10:0-203-00458-2(ebk) ISBN13:978-0-415-35840-8(hbk) ISBN13:978-0-415-35841-5(pbk) ISBN13:978-0-203-00458-6(ebk) Contents Contributors vii Acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction:theculturalpoliticsofreading 1 NAOMICONNLIEBLER 2 Daylabor:ThomasNasheandthepracticeof proseinearlymodernEngland 18 STEVEMENTZ 3 Howtoturnproseintoliterature:thecaseof ThomasNashe 33 STEPHENGUY-BRAY 4 Fishwives’tales:narrativeagency,female subjectivity,andtellingtalesoutofschool 46 CONSTANCEC.RELIHAN 5 Englishrenaissanceromancesasconductbooks foryoungmen 60 GORANV.STANIVUKOVIC 6 Mildred,belovedofthedevil,andthedangersof excessiveconsumptioninRicheHisFarewellto MilitarieProfession 79 MARY ELLENLAMB vi Contents 7 ‘‘Whatishmynation?’’:LadyMaryWroth’s interrogationsofpersonalandnationalidentity 98 SHEILAT.CAVANAGH 8 BullySt.George:RichardJohnson’sSeven ChampionsofChristendomandthecreationofthe bourgeoisnationalhero 115 NAOMICONNLIEBLER 9 Counterfeitingsovereignty,mockingmastery: tricksterpoeticsandthecritiqueofromancein Nashe’sUnfortunateTraveller 130 JOANPONGLINTON 10 Afterword 148 ARTHURF.KINNEY Notes 153 Bibliography 166 Index 179 Contributors Sheila T. Cavanagh is Masse-Martin/NEH Distinguished Teaching ProfessoratEmoryUniversityinAtlanta,Georgia.Sheistheauthor of Cherished Torment: The Emotional Geography of Lady Mary Wroth’s Urania(Duquesne2001)andWantonEyesandChasteDesires:Female Sexuality in The Faerie Queene (Indiana 1994) and numerous articles on Renaissance literature and pedagogy. She is also the Director of the Emory Women Writers Resource Project, which receivedamajorgrantfromtheNEH. Stephen Guy-Bray is Associate Professor of English at the University ofBritishColumbia.HeistheauthorofHomoeroticSpace:ThePoetics of Loss in Renaissance Literature (Toronto 2002), Loving in Verse: PoeticInfluenceasErotic (forthcomingfromTorontoin2006),and ofarticlesandbookchapters,chieflyonRenaissancepoetry.Heis currentlyworkingonabook,tentativelytitledAgainstReproduction, ontheoriesoftextualproductionintheRenaissance. Arthur F. Kinney is Thomas W. Copeland Professor of Literary His- tory and Director of the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His most re- centbooks—Shakespeare,Macbeth,andtheCulturalMoment (Wayne State 2000), Shakespeare by Stages (Blackwell 2003), Shakespeare’s Webs˙ (Routledge 2004), andShakespeare and Cognition (Routledge 2006)—deal with the impact of cognitive theory on the way Eliz- abethans saw Shakespeare’s plays. In the spring of 2006 he was giventhePaulOskarKristellerAwardforLifetimeAchievementby the RenaissanceSociety of America, the highest honorgiven to a Renaissancescholar. MaryEllenLambisProfessorofEnglishatSouthernIllinoisUniversity atCarbondale.SheisauthorofGenderandAuthorshipintheSidney viii Contributors Circle (Wisconsin 1990) and Popular Culture in Shakespeare, Spenser andJonson(forthcomingfromRoutledge2006)aswellasnumerous essays on Shakespeare and his contemporaries. She is currently workingonalargerprojectonearlymodernwomenreaderswith andagainstcontemporarydiscoursesofconsumption.For2005–6 sheisaVisitingFellowattheMassachusettsCenterforRenaissance Studies. Naomi Conn Liebler is Professor of English and University Distin- guishedScholaratMontclairStateUniversityinNewJersey.Sheis theauthorofShakespeare’s FestiveTragedy: TheRitual Foundationsof Genre (Routledge 1995), co-editor, with John Drakakis, of Tragedy (Longman1998),andeditorofTheFemaleTragicHeroinEnglishRe- naissanceDrama(Palgrave2002).Shehaswrittennumerousarticles onShakespeareandotherearlymodernwriters,includingRichard Johnson. She is currently studying ‘‘Shakespeare’s Geezers,’’ rep- resentationsandnegotiationsofoldageinallofhisdramaticand poeticgenres. JoanPongLintonisAssociateProfessorofEnglishatIndianaUniver- sity.HerpublicationsincludeTheRomanceoftheNewWorld:Gender andtheLiteraryFormationsofEnglishColonialism (Cambridge1998), and essays on early modern prose fiction and on Anne Askew. Hercurrentresearchfocusesontrickster poeticsinearlymodern Englishliteratureanddrama. Steve Mentz is Assistant Professor of English at St. John’s University in New York City. He is the author of Romance for Sale in Early Modern England: The Rise of Prose Fiction (Ashgate 2006) and co- editorofRoguesandEarlyModernEnglishCulture (Michigan2004), andofnumerousarticlesonearlymoderndramaandprose.Heis currentlyworkingonastudyofshipwrecknarrativesfromHakluyt toDefoe. Constance C. Relihan is Hargis Professor of English Literature and AssociateDeanforAcademicAffairsintheCollegeofLiberalArts at Auburn University. She is the author of Fashioning Authority: TheDevelopmentofElizabethanNovelisticDiscourses(KentState1994), Cosmographical Glasses: Geographic Discourse, Gender, and Elizabethan Fiction (Kent State 2004), editor of Framing Elizabethan Fictions: Contemporary Approaches to Early Modern Narrative Prose (Kent State 1996), and co-editor, with Goran V. Stanivukovic, of Prose Fiction andEarlyModernSexualities(Palgrave2003).Sheiscurrentlyatwork onaneditionofWestwardforSmelts. Contributors ix Goran V. Stanivukovic teaches Shakespeare and Renaissance Liter- ature at the University of Sheffield. He has published a critical editionofEmanuelForde’sOrnatusandArtesia(Dovehouse2003), andeditedvolumes,OvidandtheRenaissanceBody(Toronto2001) andProseFictionandEarlyModernSexualities,1570–1640 (co-edited with Constance C. Relihan, Palgrave 2003). His edited volume, Re-MappingtheMediterraneanWorldinEarlyModernEnglishWritings, will be published by Palgrave. He is working on a book on prose romances,fictionsofmasculinity,andMediterraneantravels.
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