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Synopsis
Secrets accomplish their cultural work by distinguishing the knowable from the (at least temporarily) unknowable, those who know from those who don't. Within these distinctions resides an enormous power that Ben Jonson (1572-1637) both deplored and exploited in his art of making plays.
Conspiracies and intrigues are the driving force of Jonson's dramatic universe. Focusing on Sejanus, His Fall; Volpone, or the Fox; Epicoene, or the Silent Woman; The Alchemist; Catiline, His Conspiracy, and Bartholomew Fair, William Slights places Jonson within the context of the secrecy- ridden culture of the court of King James I and provides illuminating readings of his best-known plays.
Slights draws on the sociology of secrecy, the history of censorship, and the theory of hermeneutics to investigate secrecy, intrigue, and conspiracy as aspects of Jonsonian dramatic form, contemporary court/city/church politics, and textual interpretation. He argues that the tension between concealment and revelation in the plays affords a model for the poise that sustained Jonson in the intricately linked worlds of royal court and commercial theatre and that made him a pivotal figure in the cultural history of early modern England.
Equally rejecting the position that Jonson was a renegade subverter of the arcana imperii and that he was a thorough-going court apologist, Slights finds that the playwright redraws the lines between private and public discourse for his own and subsequent ages.
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About the Author
William W.E. Slights is a professor in the Department of English, University of Saskatchewan.
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- PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
- Publication date1994
- ISBN 10 0802004628
- ISBN 13 9780802004628
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Edition number1
- Number of pages242
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BEN JONSON AND THE ART OF SECRECY
Published by
University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1994
ISBN 10: 0802004628
ISBN 13: 9780802004628
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, 241 pages. In Very Good condition with a Very Good dust jacket. Spine red with white lettering. Dust jacket protected with mylar covering. Minor shelf wear. Interior pages clean. Shelved Theater Criticism. 1394613. Shelved Dupont Bookstore. Seller Inventory # 1394613
Quantity: 1 available