Renaissance Literature and its Formal Engagements

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

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2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Mark David Rasmussen

      Pages 1-14

3. Toward a Historical Formalism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

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   2. Between Form and Culture

      • Stephen Cohen

      Pages 17-41

   3. Shakespeare and the Composite Text

      • Douglas Bruster

      Pages 43-66

   4. The Politics of Aesthetics

      • Heather Dubrow

      Pages 67-88

   5. Marston’s Gorge and the Question of Formalism

      • Joseph Loewenstein

      Pages 89-112

4. Renewing the Literary

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 113-113

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   2. Learning from the New Criticism

      • Paul Alpers

      Pages 115-138

   3. Undelivered Meanings

      • Mark Womack

      Pages 139-158

   4. The Poetics of Speech Tags

      • William Flesch

      Pages 159-184

   5. Flirting with Eternity

      • Elizabeth Harris Sagaser

      Pages 185-206

   6. Afterword

      • Richard Strier

      Pages 207-215

5. Back Matter

   Pages 217-225

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What might a self-conscious turn to formal analysis look like in Renaissance literary studies today, after theory and the new historicism? The essays collected here address this question from a variety of critical perspectives, as part of a renewed willingness within literary and cultural studies to engage questions of form. Essays by Paul Alpers, Douglas Bruster, Stephen Cohen, Heather Dubrow, William Flesch, Joseph Loewenstein, Elizabeth Harris Sagaser, and Mark Womack, together with an introduction of Mark David Rasmussen and an afterword by Richard Strier.

• aesthetics
• culture
• English literature
• essay
• growth
• historicism
• literary criticism
• Literary Studies
• New Criticism
• New Historicism
• play
• poem
• poetics
• politics
• Renaissance

These essays brilliantly display the pleasures offormalism and constitute a rigorous and thrilling demonstration of its indispensability. - Stanley Fish, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago.

PAUL ALPERS Class of 1942 Professor of English Emeritus, University of California DOUGLAS BRUSTER Assistant Professor of English, University of Texas, Austin STEPHEN COHEN Assistant Professor of English, University of South Alabama HEATHER DUBROW Tighe-Evans Professor and John Bascom Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison WILLIAM FLESCH Lecturer in English, Brandeis University JOSEPH LOEWENSTEIN Lecturer, Washington University ELIZABETH HARRIS SAGASER Assistant Professor in Literature, Colby College MARK WOMACK Assistant Professor of English, University of Texas, San Antonio

Policies and ethics