- Paperback: 332 pages
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press; New edition edition (1 Dec 1983)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0226306542
- ISBN-13: 978-0226306544
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 14.7 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 634,419 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"No one who has read [Greenblatt's] accounts of More, Tyndale, Wyatt, and others can fail to be moved, as well as enlightened, by an interpretive mode which is as humane and sympathetic as it is analytical. These portraits are poignantly, subtly, and minutely rendered in a beautifully lucid prose alive in every sentence to the ambivalences and complexities of its subjects." - Harry Berger Jr., University of California, Santa Cruz"
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
"Renaissance Self-Fashioning "is a study of sixteenth-century life and literature that spawned a new era of scholarly inquiry. Stephen Greenblatt examines the structure of selfhood as evidenced in major literary figures of the English Renaissance--More, Tyndale, Wyatt, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare--and finds that in the early modern period new questions surrounding the nature of identity heavily influenced the literature of the era. Now a classic text in literary studies, "Renaissance Self-Fashioning" continues to be of interest to students of the Renaissance, English literature, and the new historicist tradition, and this new edition includes a preface by the author on the book's creation and influence.
"No one who has read [Greenblatt's] accounts of More, Tyndale, Wyatt, and others can fail to be moved, as well as enlightened, by an interpretive mode which is as humane and sympathetic as it is analytical. These portraits are poignantly, subtly, and minutely rendered in a beautifully lucid prose alive in every sentence to the ambivalences and complexities of its subjects."--Harry Berger Jr., University of California, Santa Cruz
"No one who has read [Greenblatt's] accounts of More, Tyndale, Wyatt, and others can fail to be moved, as well as enlightened, by an interpretive mode which is as humane and sympathetic as it is analytical. These portraits are poignantly, subtly, and minutely rendered in a beautifully lucid prose alive in every sentence to the ambivalences and complexities of its subjects."--Harry Berger Jr., University of California, Santa Cruz
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first work of literary criticism to proclaim itself New Historicist, a term that encompases the rather heterogenous body of interdisciplinary lit crit that has achieved hegemony in academia from the publication of this book till today. This particular work is a study of the construction and formation of the selves or identities of six major literary figures of the English Renaissance. Using the literary works of More, Tynedale, Wyatt, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare as springboards, as well as other works of art, anecdotes, and historical narratives to expound his theories, Greenblatt really shows off his erudition. He not only convincingly demonstrates his theory that the formation of our identities is not as conscious a process as we would like to believe, but that history can be read and analysed like a literary text.
The criticism is highly theoretical, drawing heavily on Post-structuralism, especially Derrida and Foucault, and Feminist theories on identity, with a dash of Marx and Nietzsche for good measure. It also innovatively blurs the traditional boundaries between humanities subjects, drawing on history and psychology, showing Greenblatt's penchant for "Cultural Poetics" (cultural studies). Literature students will find this book immensely useful, whether you are interested in Renaissance studies, New Historicism, or just want to sound clever. This is a core text of Post-modernist lit crit (and probably my favourite critical work), and is also a fascinating read, like a story of the Renaissance. Greenblatt is also one of the most important and conscientious figures in literary academia, and an outspoken advocate of the worth of literary studies in this grey age of science and technology.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
38 of 56 people found the following review helpful
Greenblatt Practices Un-theoretical Theory
24 May 2000
Format:Paperback
This early example of Stephen Greenblatt's literary reading practice agrees with his theory is general. Often labeled an adherent of the new historicism (a literary theory that ascribes the authorship of books to communities and communities to books), Greenblatt shirks that title here in favor of his own phrase "cultural poetics." He explores Renaissance works, from obscure spiritual pamphlets to Shakespeare's "Othello," showing how each text is not authored by a single, coherent authorial consciousness, but is rather the product of complexly intertwined social forces, almost like an insect caught in a spider's web.
Greenblatt boldly asserts that there is no individual genius behind Shakespeare's plays, an example of the end toward which his brand of reading techniuqes are directed. Early on, he claims that his technique is not a "theory" per se, but a reading "practice," a set of approaches to literature. This claim is not fully convinving, though, and while his assessment of how people create books and books create people is thoughtful, it is hard to accept his claim that his position is free from the totalizing assumptions of every other theory.
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Utterly Helpful
22 Oct 2007
Format:Paperback
I do not believe I would read this book on my own initiative to just "learn", for the authors' style simply does not work with my style of reading and comprehending. That said, this book is absolutely invaluable for research on major Renaissance authors. The bibliographies and sources cited within his essays are also utterly helpful should more sources be needed for the project at hand. I will admit that at times I find the essays to ramble on a little, but I have always been a to-the-point writer. Those same endless sentences also make wonderful cited quotations, so I cannot complain too much.
Perfect for any student of Renaissance literature, or the Renaissance intellectual.
Perfect for any student of Renaissance literature, or the Renaissance intellectual.
28 of 46 people found the following review helpful
The Best Book on the Renaissance Ever
24 Feb 2001
Format:Paperback
OK. So maybe I'm biased. I took a course from Greenblatt when an undergard at U.C. Berekely, and he then directed my dissertation when I took my Ph.D. From U.C. Berkeley as well. But I am not alone in regarding this book as a masterpiece, exteremely well-written adn insightful. This book transformed not only the study of the Renaissance but of English literature in general. Moreover, it has influenced historians such as Natalie Daivis and anthropologists. After 17 years, Renaissance Self-Fashioning totally stands up. The chapters on Wyatt, Tyndale, More (truly stellar), Spenser, and Shakespeare remained unsurpassed. Readers may quibble, but though whose do have never written and will never write a book anywhere remotely near the excellence of Greeblatt's. It is truly inspired and deservedly influential.
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