Guilty Creatures : Renaissance Poetry and the Ethics of Authorship: Renaissance Poetry and the Ethics of Authorship

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Oxford University Press, USA, Apr 5, 2001 - Literary Criticism - 280 pages
In this innovative and learned study, Dennis Kezar examines how Renaissance poets conceive the theme of killing as a specifically representational and interpretive form of violence. Closely reading both major poets and lesser known authors of the early modern period, Kezar explores the ethical self-consciousness and accountability that attend literary killing, paying particular attention to the ways in which this reflection indicates the poet's understanding of his audience. Among the many poems through which Kezar explores the concept of authorial guilt elicited by violent representation are Skelton's Phyllyp Sparowe, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the multi-authored Witch of Edmonton, and Milton's Samson Agonistes.

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Contents

The Renaissance Killing Poem
3
John Skeltons Precedent
17
Two Spenser and the Poetics of Indiscretion
50
THREE The Properties of Shakespeares Globe
86
FOUR The Witch of Edmonton and the Guilt of Possession
114
SIX Guilt and the Constitution of Authorship in Henry V
172
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Page 5 - I deny not, but that it is of greatest concernment in the church and commonwealth, to have a vigilant eye how books demean themselves as well as men; and thereafter to confine, imprison, and do sharpest justice on them as malefactors...

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