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
Results 1-5 of 61
Page ix
... Feelings 123 DONNE Small Change : Defections from Petrarchan and Spenserian Poetics 149 Sylvia Transformed : Returning Donne's Gifts 180 " A Pregnant Bank " : Contracting and Abstracting the " You " in Donne's " A Valediction of My Name ...
... Feelings 123 DONNE Small Change : Defections from Petrarchan and Spenserian Poetics 149 Sylvia Transformed : Returning Donne's Gifts 180 " A Pregnant Bank " : Contracting and Abstracting the " You " in Donne's " A Valediction of My Name ...
Page xii
... feeling by words — seems to have subjected me too . The anamorphic vision that I describe in Laura suggests that , for reader as well as writer , poetry is a competing obsession . In that sense , I am lucky in , and indebted to , my ...
... feeling by words — seems to have subjected me too . The anamorphic vision that I describe in Laura suggests that , for reader as well as writer , poetry is a competing obsession . In that sense , I am lucky in , and indebted to , my ...
Page 3
... feelings and only at the end learn that they are royal scions . Though they love , they do not know how to make love . Chloe ... feeling can be turned into art . Like gender , genre both resists essentializing and comes close 3 INTRODUCTION.
... feelings and only at the end learn that they are royal scions . Though they love , they do not know how to make love . Chloe ... feeling can be turned into art . Like gender , genre both resists essentializing and comes close 3 INTRODUCTION.
Page 8
... feeling , on attuning to fine tuning : " she was in doubt which of the two bodies was the finer . " Her tentative probings are the woman's gesture , as Irigaray defines it : The girl describes a circle both inviting and refusing access ...
... feeling , on attuning to fine tuning : " she was in doubt which of the two bodies was the finer . " Her tentative probings are the woman's gesture , as Irigaray defines it : The girl describes a circle both inviting and refusing access ...
Page 21
... feelings that hover on the border of known signs , including those of gender positions thought to be culturally codified . " Not being " becomes a viable alternative when " the being which is not " is seen as part of the many layers of ...
... feelings that hover on the border of known signs , including those of gender positions thought to be culturally codified . " Not being " becomes a viable alternative when " the being which is not " is seen as part of the many layers of ...
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
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