Laura: Uncovering Gender and Genre in Wyatt, Donne and MarvellHow do men imagine women? In the poetry of Petrarch and his English successors—Wyatt, Donne, and Marvell—the male poet persistently imagines pursuing a woman, Laura, whom he pursues even as she continues to deny his affections. Critics have long held that, in objectifying Laura, these male-authored texts deny the imaginative, intellectual, and physical life of the woman they idealize. In Laura, Barbara L. Estrin counters this traditional view by focusing not on the generative powers of the male poet, but on the subjectivity of the imagined woman and the imaginative space of the poems she occupies. Through close readings of the Rime sparse and the works of Wyatt, Donne, and Marvell, Estrin uncovers three Lauras: Laura-Daphne, who denies sexuality; Laura-Eve, who returns the poet’s love; and Laura-Mercury, who reinvents her own life. Estrin claims that in these three guises Laura subverts both genre and gender, thereby introducing multiple desires into the many layers of the poems. Drawing upon genre and gender theories advanced by Jean-François Lyotard and Judith Butler to situate female desire in the poem’s framework, Estrin shows how genre and gender in the Petrarchan tradition work together to undermine the stability of these very concepts. Estrin’s Laura constitutes a fundamental reconceptualization of the Petrarchan tradition and contributes greatly to the postmodern reassessment of the Renaissance period. In its descriptions of how early modern poets formulate questions about sexuality, society and poetry, Laura will appeal to scholars of the English and Italian Renaissance, of gender studies, and of literary criticism and theory generally. |
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Page 6
... body as gendered ) . This oscillating visual frame paral- lels the movable auditory filter Laura uses to describe the differences that occur when the signs of the Petrarchan poem are read to suggest that the woman might be the uncoverer ...
... body as gendered ) . This oscillating visual frame paral- lels the movable auditory filter Laura uses to describe the differences that occur when the signs of the Petrarchan poem are read to suggest that the woman might be the uncoverer ...
Page 7
... body . It's all in the man's head . If the picture becomes Cupid's story , then the lovers are bound to separate . If Chloe prevails , they will turn toward each other and complete the story Longus tells . To define gender in the ...
... body . It's all in the man's head . If the picture becomes Cupid's story , then the lovers are bound to separate . If Chloe prevails , they will turn toward each other and complete the story Longus tells . To define gender in the ...
Page 8
... body . Longus describes Chloe's het- erosexual awakening as a function of her masturbatory pleasure . She does not ... bodies was the finer " ( p . 17 ) . Chloe's uncertainty centers on a subtlety of feeling , on attuning to fine tuning ...
... body . Longus describes Chloe's het- erosexual awakening as a function of her masturbatory pleasure . She does not ... bodies was the finer " ( p . 17 ) . Chloe's uncertainty centers on a subtlety of feeling , on attuning to fine tuning ...
Page 15
... ( Bodies That Matter , p . 19 ) . The point where Butler and Lyotard intersect is the point that undoes a starting point . Each text requires " a set of prior texts . " Each text provokes a set of not yet performed texts . Through ...
... ( Bodies That Matter , p . 19 ) . The point where Butler and Lyotard intersect is the point that undoes a starting point . Each text requires " a set of prior texts . " Each text provokes a set of not yet performed texts . Through ...
Page 16
... ( Bodies That Matter , p . 15 ) and that " performativity is always a reiteration of a norm or set of norms " ( Bodies That ... body but is , rather , a term produced by structures of social relationship " ( Sodometries , p . 58 ) . When ...
... ( Bodies That Matter , p . 15 ) and that " performativity is always a reiteration of a norm or set of norms " ( Bodies That ... body but is , rather , a term produced by structures of social relationship " ( Sodometries , p . 58 ) . When ...
Other editions - View all
Laura: Uncovering Gender and Genre in Wyatt, Donne and Marvell Barbara L. Estrin Limited preview - 1994 |
Laura: Uncovering Gender and Genre in Wyatt, Donne and Marvell Barbara L. Estrin No preview available - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
Actaeon Adam Adam's already anamorphic Andrew Marvell anticipates Apollo Appleton House argues Battus becomes begins body Bordone Bordone painting Broken Heart calls Change Clora Coy Mistress critical Damon Daphne David death deer denial denies desire Diana discourse Donne's dream dyad emerges eternity eyes fawn feeling female flee Funerall future Gallery gaze gender Genesis genre gesture idealized imagined imitates initial inspiration invents Jeat Ring John Donne Juliana Kazimir Malevich lady lady's Laura Laura-Daphne Laura-Eve Laura-Mercury laurel list to hunt lover Lyotard lyric male Marvell Marvell's metaphor mirror Monique Wittig mower myth Nancy Vickers narrator nymph original Ovid Petrarch Petrarchan Petrarchan poem poet poet's poetic poetry polyptych present Psalms reading reflects Renaissance revenge Rime sparse 23 sequence sexual sighs song Sonnets space speaker speaks stanza story sublimation suggests tion turns University Press vision Weeping Whoso list woman women words writes Wyatt