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. |
From inside the book
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Page xi
... readers as Alfred Fisher and Francis Murphy at Smith , Anne Ferry , David Kalstone , and Robert Lowell at Harvard , and Edwin Honig at Brown . I can still hear Murphy reading ( with unflinching New England probing ) Stevens's " The ...
... readers as Alfred Fisher and Francis Murphy at Smith , Anne Ferry , David Kalstone , and Robert Lowell at Harvard , and Edwin Honig at Brown . I can still hear Murphy reading ( with unflinching New England probing ) Stevens's " The ...
Page xii
... reading itself established an indelible link between the exhilaration of first hearing and the much later challenge ... reader as well as writer , poetry is a competing obsession . In that sense , I am lucky in , and indebted to , my ...
... reading itself established an indelible link between the exhilaration of first hearing and the much later challenge ... reader as well as writer , poetry is a competing obsession . In that sense , I am lucky in , and indebted to , my ...
Page xiii
... readers whose imaginative engagement and stimulating ques- tions made this a stronger book . The critical acumen of Marie Blanchard and Pam Morrison of the Duke editorial staff provided many creative emendations . Tess Hoffmann , Anne ...
... readers whose imaginative engagement and stimulating ques- tions made this a stronger book . The critical acumen of Marie Blanchard and Pam Morrison of the Duke editorial staff provided many creative emendations . Tess Hoffmann , Anne ...
Page 1
... Reading Backward from the Gesture The wallcard at the National Gallery in London for the mid - sixteenth- century painting by Paris Bordone called " A Pair of Lovers " reveals some critical uncertainty about its title . The source of ...
... Reading Backward from the Gesture The wallcard at the National Gallery in London for the mid - sixteenth- century painting by Paris Bordone called " A Pair of Lovers " reveals some critical uncertainty about its title . The source of ...
Page 4
... reading of auditory signs , and since the Bordone painting provides such a good example of the rela- tion of gender position to literary genre , Lyotard's definition of the im- bricated visual space provides a useful starting point for ...
... reading of auditory signs , and since the Bordone painting provides such a good example of the rela- tion of gender position to literary genre , Lyotard's definition of the im- bricated visual space provides a useful starting point for ...
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