The Emergence of the English Author: Scripting the Life of the Poet in Early Modern England (Paperback)

Kevin Pask

ISBN 10: 0521020921 / ISBN 13: 9780521020923

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005

About this Item

Paperback. The historical construction of literary authorship has long been of particular interest to literary scholars. 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 studies the early life-narratives of five now-canonical English poets: Geoffrey Chaucer, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, John Donne and John Milton. By attending to the changing shape of the lives of these poets, Pask produces a history of the developing conception of literary authorship in England from the late medieval period to the end of the eighteenth century, and offers a long-term sociological account of literary production. His book is the first full-scale history of the cultural construction of literary authority in early modern England. The emergence of the author and the development of literary authority, through literary biography 1400 1800. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780521020923

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Emergence of the English Author: Scripting the Life of the Poet in Early Modern England (Paperback)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521020921
• ISBN 13: 9780521020923
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

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