«Remov'd from human eyes»: Madness and Poetry 1676-1774

«Remov'd from human eyes»: Madness and Poetry 1676-1774
Author: Natali, Ilaria
Publisher: Firenze University Press
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2016-08-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 8864533192

The years 1676 and 1774 marked two turning points in the social and legal treatment of madness in England. In 1676, London’s Bethlehem Hospital expanded in grand new premises, and in 1774 the Madhouses Act attempted to limit confinement of the insane. This study explores almost a century of the English history of madness through the texts of five poets who were considered mentally troubled according to contemporary standards: James Carkesse, Anne Finch, William Collins, Christopher Smart and William Cowper were hospitalized, sequestered or exiled from society. Their works cope with representations of insanity, medical definitions or practices, imputed illness, and the judging eye of the ‘sane other’, shedding new light on the dis/continuities in the notion of madness of this period.

In Search of a Feminist Writer

In Search of a Feminist Writer
Author: Dr. Rohidas Nitonde
Publisher: Partridge Publishing
Total Pages: 149
Release: 2014-07-16
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1482833905

In this scholarly book Dr. Rohidas Nitonde examines Manju Kapurs novels with a feminist perspective. The study offers an in depth analysis of all the five novels by Kapur. It is for the first time that all her works are illustrated with a single perspective. The focus of argument leads to conclude on Kapurs vision of Indian womanhood. The book explains Kapurs indubitable ability to explore the psyche of the present day urban, educated middle-class Indian woman who is trapped in the midway between tradition and modernity. It is an attempt to study Kapurs women protagonists, as portrayed by her in her novels, with a view to understand and appreciate their trials and tribulations under the impact of the conflicting influence of tradition and modernity and to critically analyze their response to the emerging situation in life so as to fit themselves in the contemporary society. It also probes deeply into the novelists conviction of what would serve as the ideal panacea for the different kinds of challenges faced by her female characters. It as well explores both the daring and desires of the Indian women in the fictional works of Kapur. The study is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter is introductory in nature. The subsequent five chapters deal with the five women protagonists Virmati, Astha, Nisha, Nina and Ishita who, finding themselves trapped in the roles assigned to them by the society, attempt to assert their individuality. Sensitive to the changing times and situations, they revolt against the traditions in their search for freedom. The last chapter concludes the study by bringing out the general statement about Kapurs female protagonists. Its Bibliography and Webliography sections are exhaustive. This has turned the authoritative work into an indispensable resource for academicians and research scholars. It is an invaluable reference on Manju Kapur.

Shakespeare and the Culture of Romanticism

Shakespeare and the Culture of Romanticism
Author: Joseph M. Ortiz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 135190079X

The idea of Shakespearean genius and sublimity is usually understood to be a product of the Romantic period, promulgated by poets such as Coleridge and Byron who promoted Shakespeare as the supreme example of literary genius and creative imagination. However, the picture looks very different when viewed from the perspective of the myriad theater directors, actors, poets, political philosophers, gallery owners, and other professionals in the nineteenth century who turned to Shakespeare to advance their own political, artistic, or commercial interests. Often, as in John Kemble’s staging of The Winter’s Tale at Drury Lane or John Boydell’s marketing of paintings in his Shakespeare Gallery, Shakespeare provided a literal platform on which both artists and entrepreneurs could strive to influence cultural tastes and points of view. At other times, Romantic writers found in Shakespeare’s works a set of rhetorical and theatrical tools through which to form their own public personae, both poetic and political. Women writers in particular often adapted Shakespeare to express their own political and social concerns. Taken together, all of these critical and aesthetic responses attest to the remarkable malleability of the Shakespearean corpus in the Romantic period. As the contributors show, Romantic writers of all persuasions”Whig and Tory, male and female, intellectual and commercial”found in Shakespeare a powerful medium through which to claim authority for their particular interests.

Shakespeare's Binding Language

Shakespeare's Binding Language
Author: John Kerrigan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 635
Release: 2016
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0198757581

Shakespeare's Binding Language is an innovative, substantial but highly readable study exploring the significance in Shakespeare's plays of oaths, vows, contracts, pledges and the other verbal and performative acts by which characters commit themselves to the truth of things past, present, and to come.

The Single Woman, Modernity, and Literary Culture

The Single Woman, Modernity, and Literary Culture
Author: Emma Sterry
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2017-06-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3319408291

This book situates the single woman within the evolving landscape of modernity, examining how she negotiated rural and urban worlds, explored domestic and bohemian roles, and traversed public and private spheres. In the modern era, the single woman was both celebrated and derided for refusing to conform to societal expectations regarding femininity and sexuality. The different versions of single women presented in cultural narratives of this period—including the old maid, odd woman, New Woman, spinster, and flapper—were all sexually suspicious. The single woman, however, was really an amorphous figure who defied straightforward categorization. Emma Sterry explores depictions of such single women in transatlantic women’s fiction of the 1920s to 1940s. Including a diverse selection of renowned and forgotten writers, such as Djuna Barnes, Rosamond Lehmann, Ngaio Marsh, and Eliot Bliss, this book argues that the single woman embodies the tensions between tradition and progress in both middlebrow and modernist literary culture.

Backstage in the Novel

Backstage in the Novel
Author: Francesca Saggini
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Total Pages: 516
Release: 2012
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0813932548

"Saggini traces the unique interplay between fiction and theatre in the eighteenth century through an examination of the work of the English novelist, diarist, and playwright Frances Burney" -- Dust jacket.

The Gothic Novel and the Stage

The Gothic Novel and the Stage
Author: Francesca Saggini
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2015-08-12
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317319508

In this ground-breaking study Saggini explores the relationship between the late eighteenth-century novel and the theatre, arguing that the implicit theatricality of the Gothic novel made it an obvious source from which dramatists could take ideas. Similarly, elements of the theatre provided inspiration to novelists.

The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne

The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne
Author: John Donne
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 1012
Release: 2021-01-05
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0253050391

Based on an exhaustive study of the manuscripts and printed editions in which these poems have appeared, the eighth in the series of The Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne presents newly edited critical texts of thirteen Divine Poems and details the genealogical history of each poem, accompanied by a thorough prose discussion. Arranged chronologically within sections, the material is organized under the following headings: Dates and Circumstances; General Commentary; Genre; Language, Versification, and Style; the Poet/Persona; and Themes. The volume also offers a comprehensive digest of general and topical commentary on the Divine Poems from Donne's time through 2012.