The Emergence of the English Author Scripting the Life of the Poet in Early Modern England

Pask, Kevin

ISBN 10: 0521481554 / ISBN 13: 9780521481557

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996

About this Item

218pp. Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture 12. Black cloth with silver lettering on spine. Dust jacket with black and white pictorial covers, green title box; 1/4" nick on fore-edge 1 1/2" from bottom, else As New. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Bookseller Inventory # 002350

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Emergence of the English Author ...

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Publication Date: 1996

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition:As New

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

The historical construction of authorship is of enormous interest to scholars and critics. Yet an important aspect of the historical emergence of the author--the literary biography or "life of the poet"--has received scant attention. In The Emergence of the English Author, Kevin Pask offers the first full-scale history of the cultural construction of literary authority in early modern England, and studies the early life-narratives of major English poets Chaucer, Sidney, Spenser, Donne and Milton.

Review:

"Pask presents a well-written, original, and insightful study....this book is a valuable contribution to the Cambridge series." J.S. Carducci, Choice

"The Emergence of the English Author begins with a postmodern recognition of the author as a construct, examines the implications of this concept through a detailed cultural-historical study of several canonized English Authors, and through this process, raises provocative questions. It will be of interest to scholars of English literary history, early modern cultural studies, and critical theory." Pauline Head, Biography

"Pask's book is logically engaging and perceptive in its analysis of the sociocultural pressures that shape the changing life-narratives of these poets." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"In this book, Kevin Pask...sheds light on early modern ideas about the nature and status of poetic authorship, ides which helped to shape the canon of vernacular literature(1). He thus adds substantially to current thinking about the historical processes which ultimately gave rise to the academic discipline of English. Stephen Parttridge, Envoi