Litteraturstudier: fra 1400 til 1600

The Renaissance, scholars have long argued, was a period beset by the loss of philosophical certainty. In Possible Knowledge, Debapriya Sarkar argues for the pivotal role of literature--what early moderns termed poesie--in the dynamic intellectual culture of this era of profound incertitude. Revealing how problems of epistemology are inextricable from questions of literary form, Sarkar offers a defense of poiesis, or literary making, as a vital philosophical endeavor. Working across a range of genres, Sarkar theorizes "possible knowledge" as an intellectual paradigm crafted in and through literary form. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers such as Spenser, Bacon, Shakespeare, Cavendish, and Milton marshalled the capacious concept of the "possible," defined by Philip Sidney as what "may be and should be," to construct new theories of physical and metaphysical reality. These early modern thinkers mobilized the imaginative habits of thought constitutive to major genres of literary writing--including epic, tragedy, romance, lyric, and utopia--in order to produce knowledge divorced from historical truth and empirical fact by envisioning states of being untethered from "nature" or reality. Approaching imaginative modes such as hypothesis, conjecture, prediction, and counterfactuals as instruments of possible knowledge, Sarkar exposes how the speculative allure of the "possible" lurks within scientific experiment, induction, and theories of probability. In showing how early modern literary writing sought to grapple with the challenge of forging knowledge in an uncertain, perhaps even incomprehensible world, Possible Knowledge also highlights its most audacious intellectual ambition: its claim that while natural philosophy, or what we today term science, might explain the physical world, literature could remake reality. Enacting a history of ideas that centers literary studies, Possible Knowledge suggests that what we have termed a history of science might ultimately be a history of the imagination.

Die Beiträge des Bandes befassen sich in disziplinärer und interdisziplinärer Perspektive aus Literaturwissenschaft, Kunstgeschichte und Musikwissenschaft mit den Ästhetiken pluraler Autorschaft. Der Band zielt darauf, plurale Autorschaft in der Vormoderne als Koordinate einer Anderen Ästhetik zu erschließen und kulturgeschichtlich zu kontextualisieren. Dabei fokussiert der Band zwei Leitfragen: Welche Formen pluraler Autorschaft gibt es in der Vormoderne, und wie werden diese gemeinschaftlichen Schaffensprozesse ästhetischer Akte und Artefakte reflektiert? Wie wirken sich gemeinschaftliche Schaffensprozesse auf die ästhetische Faktur sowie die Funktion, Bedeutung und Rezeption eines Artefakts aus? Die zweite Frage schließt Aspekte wie die materielle Produktion von Texten und Bildern ebenso ein wie etwa den Status anonymer Werke und Referenzen auf göttliche Co-Autorschaft. Die Beiträge untersuchen den historischen Mehrwert gemeinschaftlicher Autorschaft, wobei sie auch Paratextualität und Intermedialität sowie ökonomische Erwägungen bei der Produktion und Rezeption ästhetischer Artefakte berücksichtigen.

Globalisierung ist kein modernes Phänomen, sondern so alt wie die Menschheit selbst. Die Begegnung mit anderen Kulturen spielt dabei eine zentrale Rolle: Die Art und Weise, wie Individuen und Gesellschaften darauf reagieren, ermöglicht uns nicht nur tiefe Einblicke darin, wie andere Kulturen wahrgenommen werden, sondern auch in das eigene Selbstverständnis.Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht genau diese interkulturellen Begegnungen in einer Zeit, die als eine der einflussreichsten Epochen der Globalisierung im modernen Sinn gilt: die Frühe Neuzeit in England. Am Beispiel von sechs ausgewählten Stücken William Shakespeares (Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Cymbeline und The Tempest) wird die Entwicklung der Darstellung dieser Begegnungen in drei Phasen nachgezeichnet, die durch die Ausrichtung der zentralen Grenzüberschreitung (transgression, presence und inversion) definiert wird. Diese Entwicklung reflektiert, so die Leitthese der Arbeit, die soziokulturellen Diskurse der Entstehungszeit der Stücke, welche zu verstehen helfen, wie Prozesse der frühneuzeitlichen Globalisierung aufgegriffen, fort- und umgeschrieben sowie mitgestaltet wurden.

Este volumen de estudios, que contiene artículos escritos por algunos de los más prestigiosos siglodoristas en el ámbito internacional, ofrece un análisis abarcador de las formas poéticas del Siglo de Oro. ENGLISH TRANSLATIONThis volume of essays by some of the most prestigious international scholars offers a comprehensive analysis of the poetic forms of the Spanish Golden Age.

First full study of the use made by Renaissance writers of the past in their prose fiction.

Object Oriented Environs is the lively archive of a critical confluence between the environmental turn so vigorous within early modern studies, and thing theory (object oriented ontology, vibrant materialism, the new materialism and speculative realism). The book unfolds a conversation that attempts to move beyond anthropocentrism and examine nonhumans at every scale, their relations to each other, and the ethics of human enmeshment within an agentic material world. The diverse essays, reflections, images and ephemera collected here offer a laboratory for probing the mystery and potential autonomy of objects, in their alliances and in performance.The book is the trace of an event-space crafted over a day of conversation in two seminars at the Shakespeare Association of America meeting in 2014 in St. Louis and offers its nineteen essays as the end to the work-cycle of the collective we crafted that day. It is a noisy collation, full of bees, bushes, laundry, crutches, lists, poems, plague vectors, planks, chairs, rain, shoes, meat, body parts, books, and assorted humans (living and dead), and also a repertoire of dance steps, ways of configuring the relations between subject and object, actors or actants (human and otherwise). It is also a book that asks readers to ponder their environs, to consider the particularities of their world, of their reading experiences, and to consider what orders of meaning we might be able to derive from attending closely to all the very many things we come into being with.Contributors include: Lizz Angello, Sallie Anglin, Keith M. Botelho, Patricia A. Cahill, Jeffrey Cohen, Drew Daniel, Christine Hoffmann, Neal Klomp, Julia Lupton, Vin Nardizzi, Tara Pedersen, Tripthi Pillai, Karen Raber, Pauline Reid, Emily Rendek, Lindsey Row-Heyveld, Debapriya Sarkar, Rob Wakeman, Jennifer Waldron, Luke Wilson, and Julian Yates.

This bilingual (English-French) anthology of early modern fictitious catalogues presents a multitude of texts, from the genre's beginnings (Rabelais's satirical catalogue of the Library of St.-Victor (1532)) to its French and Dutch specimens from around 1700.

Doktorarbeit / Dissertation aus dem Jahr 1994 im Fachbereich Anglistik - Literatur, Note: cum laude, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Fakultaet fuer Philologie), Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Bei Shakespeares Narren und die Tradition des Hofnarrentums handelt es sich um eine 1995 veröffentlichte und jetzt neu illustrierte Dissertation aus dem Fachbereich Anglistik. Sie deckt die enge Verflechtung des Komödienwerks Shakespeares mit der Tradition des Hofnarren auf, indem sie sowohl die sozialgeschichtliche Tradition des Hofnarren als auch die des Bühnennarren untersucht. Zum Verständnis der Rolle der Hofnarren in Shakespeares Dramen sind Informationen über ihren Ursprung, ihr Leben, ihr Aussehen, ihre physische und psychische Kondition, das Verhältnis der Gesellschaft zu ihnen, ihre Funktionen am Hof, das Lachen über sie und mit ihnen, sowie über den Untergang des Narrenphänomens vonnöten. Neben dem sozialgeschichtlichen Aspekt werden des Weiteren der Symbolwert der Narrenfigur im Mittelalter und in der Renaissance, sowie der Einfluss der Karnevalstradition auf den Hofnarren beleuchtet. Bei der Darstellung des geistesgeschichtlichen Wandels der Narrenidee in Ikonographie und Literatur kontrastiert das mittelalterliche Konzept des Sündernarren mit dem erasmischen Renaissancebild des Narren.Die Geschichte des 'stage-fools' von der antiken Atellane über den Mimus, die Commedia dell'arte, Mysterienspiele und Moralitäten bis hin zum Elisabethanischen Drama lässt die Größe der Shakespearenarren noch evidenter werden. Doch bei der Kreation seiner Narren war Shakespeare nicht nur der Tradition der realen Hofnarren und der der 'fools' und 'clowns' der Bühne verpflichtet. Der Einfluss der komischen Schauspieler Will Kempe und Robert Armin bestimmte ebenfalls die Evolution der Lachgestalt in seinem Bühnenwerk. Es folgt eine eigenständige, aus dem sozial- und literaturgeschichtlichen Teil erwachsene Analyse und Interpretation der vier Hofnarren in Shakespeares Komödien: Costard (LLL), Lavatch (AWEW), Touchstone (AYL) und Feste (TN) werden einmal als Hofnarren - also ihre Lebensbedingungen, soziale Position, ihre Erscheinung und Benehmen, sowie ihre Hofnarrenfunktionen - und zum anderen als Bühnennarren analysiert. Beleuchtet werden auch das Lachen über sie, sowie ihre Position in der Evolution der 'stage fools' im Allgemeinen und innerhalb des Bühnenwerks Shakespeares. Die gesamte Analyse dient letztendlich dem Zweck, den Lesern die Superiorität und Singularität der Kreation des im erasmischen Sinne 'weisen Narren' Shakespeares vor Augen zu führen.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, RWTH Aachen University, language: English, abstract: The following essay is an analysis of Shakespeare's Puck and the way he is presented in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The first topic to deal with is that of Puck's background, the history of the hobgoblin before and after Shakespeare. After that, the main focus will be laid on Shakespeare's presentation of Puck's character in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Potential differences between the Shakespearean and the folklore Puck are also to be pointed out. Since Puck is an ambivalent figure, the characterisation is to be a try to find out wheatear Puck is presented as a more positive or a more malignant figure. The last point focuses Puck's functions in the play, since it is undoubted that he has more than one. Since his 'official' function is that of Oberon's servant and jester, Puck's relationship to his master will also be shortly examined in that chapter.

Fresh essays on the works of the most significant -- and readable -- German Baroque author.

Seminar paper from the year 1983 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 3,0, Bielefeld University (Sprachenzentrum), course: Elizabethan English, language: English, abstract: The aim of the following paper is to take a closer look at Shakespeare¿s prose from a stylistic, linguistic and rhetorical point of view. Given the fact that Shakespeare¿s prose occurs both in his comedies, tragedies and histories and prose is being used in his plays by characters of different social ranks the question is to be asked which various functions prose as a medium fulfils in relationship to such other functions as setting, dialogue, action and theme. According to Brian Vickers Elizabethan audiences must have been aware of the alternation of prose and verse. It can be assumed that any deviation from the norm which was blank verse was a) felt by attentive audiences and b) had an impact on the way actors behaved on the stage. In the following essay I shall employ the critical method devised by Vickers in his book ¿The Artistry of Shakespeare¿s Prose¿. First, I shall be dealing with different forms of Shakespearean imagery. For the sake of convenience, I am making use of the categories suggested by Vickers. Second, I am trying to find examples showing those recurrent Shakespearean devices which have a determinant influence on what Vickers calls ¿the linguistic structure¿. These devices include features like repartee, equivocation, comic logic; malapropism, repetition; foreign and regional English; unusual syntax; fondness for proverbs; word play and punning. Third, I shall prove that Shakespeare made frequent use of various rhetorical figures.

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Basel (Englisches Seminar), course: Shakespeare's Roman Plays, language: English, abstract: The relationship between fathers and daughters is a powerful source of Shakespeare¿s plays, which he chose to explore in great depth. By focussing on Shakespeare¿s dramas "Cymbeline", "Hamlet", "King Lear" and "Othello", I will try to examine the complex and provocative relationship between fathers and daughters.These literary works provide four different father-daughter relationships between Cymbeline and Innogen, Polonius and Ophelia, King Lear and Cordelia and Brabantio and Desdemona. The plays have in common that they take up the stories at the point at which the daughter is moving out of the sphere of her father¿s control and starts to become independent.The topic will be introduced by considering the historical background, which will help understand the situation of women at Shakespeare¿s times and the cultural dimension of the relationship a woman had to her father. Following this, on the basis of Shakespeare¿s dramas I will explore the challenges that daughters had to face by considering the fathers¿ responses to transitions in her life like marriage. How do daughters handle the situation of leaving their fathers for the commitment of marriage and filial obedience? Are the fathers ready to release their daughters into adulthood?

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 3.0, University of Trier, language: English, abstract: Heroes had always been there, but changed over time. They adapted to the needs of populations, societies and cultures, becoming sometimes national heroes. The best example of a changing and self-adapting hero would be Robin Hood. He is globally famous and his, probably, two best known attributes are: taking from the rich and giving to the poor, as well as being an outlaw. Not everyone might know that his real life existence is highly controversial. His legend, hence, varied from the location and the famous characters ¿ Lady Marian and Friar Tuck ¿ had to develop over time. Due to the change of the Hood myth in medieval times he could adapt from the society of the poor, working his way up, to the acceptance of high society. Always by adapting and changing the myth to the needs of the societies through the centuries, Hood could become the legend today¿s people know.

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: 1,7, University College Dublin, course: Hauptseminar: Writing and Performance in the Age of Shakespeare - Renaissance Literature, language: English, abstract: The play "Edward II" by Christopher Marlowe is a tragedy that depicts King Edward's reign, his forced abdication, and his death as well as the rise and fall of King Edward¿s opponent Mortimer Junior. The respective relationships of these men play a major role in their development, which is why this paper focuses on the homoerotic relationship of King Edward and Gaveston as well as on the relationship of Queen Isabel and Mortimer Junior. Analyzed will be sexual and social transgressions as well as their effects which drive the plot forward.

The Journal of the Early Book Society publishes several substantial articles in each volume with emphasis on the period of transition from manuscript to print.