The English Renaissance Identity and Representation in Elizabethan England [Paperback]

This book reassesses Renaissance English literature and its place in Elizabethan society. It examines, in particular, the role of Italianate literary imitation in addressing the ethical and political issues of the sixteenth century.Acknowledgements.

Introduction.

1. The Reception of Italian Literary Culture: Motives and Dynamics.

2. Wyatt, Surrey, and the Onset of English Petrarchism.

3. Elizabethan Petrarchism and the Protestant Location of Self.

4. Ethic and Politic Considerations: Spenser, Sidney, and the Uses of Italianate Pastoral.

5. Epic and the Formation of National Identity: Ariosto, Tasso, and The Faerie Queene.

6. Appraising 'The Seeming Truths' of the Times: the Italianate Plays of Shakespeare.

Conclusion.

Bibliography.

Index.

Fox's clear style suits his difficult material. This is one of few recent works treating Italian influence in detail with a good command of the evidence as well as a fresh point of view. Strongly recommended for graduates, researchers, and faculty. Choice

‘Alistair Fox offers a new and compelling version of the literary culture of Tudor England, one that finds its defining qualities in the complex interactions of English Protestantism and Italian humanism. If a full synthesis of the two systems finally proved impossible for English writers, Fox impressively shows how their brave effort to achieve it animates the most important imaginative literature of the period.’ – David Scott Kastan, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

‘The English Renaissance registers how the secular narratives of Catholic culture were reinvented by England’s new Protestant culture.l“$