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 14
... argue that this international poetic family was decidedly male and that Pe- trarchan poems always speak away the woman . Following the seminal studies of Sheila Fisher , Janet Halley , Nancy Vickers , and Marguerite Waller , feminist ...
... argue that this international poetic family was decidedly male and that Pe- trarchan poems always speak away the woman . Following the seminal studies of Sheila Fisher , Janet Halley , Nancy Vickers , and Marguerite Waller , feminist ...
Page 15
... argues , genre is a shorthand way of expressing a " complex set of ideas , " and " a challenge to match an imaginative structure to reality , " " then contemporary gender and genre theories ask questions that assume both the ...
... argues , genre is a shorthand way of expressing a " complex set of ideas , " and " a challenge to match an imaginative structure to reality , " " then contemporary gender and genre theories ask questions that assume both the ...
Page 16
... argues that gender isn't " su- tured onto a biological body but is , rather , a term produced by structures of ... arguing for contingency . In citing texts such as Butler's Gender Trouble and Gold- berg's Sodometries , Laura assumes ...
... argues that gender isn't " su- tured onto a biological body but is , rather , a term produced by structures of ... arguing for contingency . In citing texts such as Butler's Gender Trouble and Gold- berg's Sodometries , Laura assumes ...
Page 17
... argues , " present the unpresentable in presentation itself " ? 34 To apply con- temporary gender and genre theory to early modern texts is to read , as Neely advocates , for the subversive element that has been heretofore overlooked ...
... argues , " present the unpresentable in presentation itself " ? 34 To apply con- temporary gender and genre theory to early modern texts is to read , as Neely advocates , for the subversive element that has been heretofore overlooked ...
Page 18
... argue for gender performance say that it is virtu- ally impossible to find the destabilizing elements in the lyric " which ( arguably ) dramatizes the narcissism of a single speaking voice uninter- rupted by other voices . . . . [ In ...
... argue for gender performance say that it is virtu- ally impossible to find the destabilizing elements in the lyric " which ( arguably ) dramatizes the narcissism of a single speaking voice uninter- rupted by other voices . . . . [ In ...
Contents
Laura as Eve to Petrarchs Adam | 41 |
LIKE A MAN WHO THINKS AND WEEPS AND WRITES | 61 |
Wyatts Revenge in the Lyrics and Sustenance in the Psalms | 93 |
Telling Wyatts Feelings | 123 |
Defections from Petrarchan and Spenserian Poetics | 149 |
Returning Donnes Gifts | 180 |
Contracting and Abstracting the You in Donnes A Valediction of My Name in the Window and Elegy Change | 201 |
Appropriations of Female Power in Damon the Mower and The Gallery | 227 |
Marvells Nymph and the Revenge of Silence | 255 |
After the Garden in Appleton House | 278 |
MUSING AFTERWARD | 304 |
NOTES | 319 |
INDEX | 339 |
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 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 defines denial denies desire Diana discourse Donne Donne's dream dyad emerges eternity eyes fawn feeling female flee frame Funerall future Gallery gaze gender Genesis genre gesture idealized imagined imbricated imitates initial inspiration invents Jean-François Lyotard 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 opening original Ovid Petrarch Petrarchan Petrarchan poem poet poet's poetic poetry polyptych present Psalms reading Renaissance revenge Rime sparse 23 sequence sexual sighs song speaker speaks stanza story sublimation suggests tion turns vision Weeping Whoso list woman women words writes Wyatt
Popular passages
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