Synopsis
The extent to which a knowledge of sixteenth-century theological doctrines can help readers interpret the works of Edmund Spenser has long been a matter of controversy. In Interpretation and Theology in Spenser Darryl J. Gless offers a new approach: drawing on recent literary theories, he focuses less on what Spenser intended than on the ways readers might construe both the poet's works and the theological doctrines which those works invoke. Professor Gless demonstrates the seldom-admitted fact that theological texts, like literary ones, are subject to the interpretive activity of readers. Informed by this approach to Elizabethan theology, he develops a thorough analysis of the first, most widely studied, book of Spenser's Elizabethan epic The Faerie Queene. He concludes with a fast-moving survey of ways in which theological perspectives can enrich significant moments in later, less overtly theological, passages of Spenser's great poem.

First Sentence
Spenser scholarship has often treated the word "holiness" as if it were utterly vague, merely describing a special degree of individual piety. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
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• Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Poetry & Poets > 16th to 18th Centuries
• Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Poetry > Genres > Epics
• Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Poetry
• Study Books > Undergraduate & Postgraduate > Arts & Humanities > Literature & Drama > Drama > Criticism

Poetry & poets: 16th to 18th centuries
English
British Isles
16th century
Christian poetry, English
Christianity and literature
Early modern, 1500-1700
England
English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
Epic poetry, English
Faerie queene
History
History and criticism
Literary Criticism
Literature
Poetry
Religion
Spenser, Edmund
Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599


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