Early Modern Prose Fiction: The Cultural Politics of Reading

202 Pages·2006·1.18 MB·English

by  N Conn Liebler

Early Modern Prose Fiction
Thestudyofearlymodernprosefictionoffersinvaluableinsightinto
the culture of the period and is quickly becoming one of the most
excitingareasofcurrentliteraryresearch.Bringingtogethermultiple
strands of recent scholarship, Early Modern Prose Fiction formulates
afresh the critical and historical context in which this crucial genre
mightbeunderstoodandoffersbothasurveyofthefieldandincisive
analysisofkeyauthorsandtexts.
Sharingtheviewthatprosefictionhadasignificantimpactonthe
social, political and economic fabric of early modern England, the
essaysinthisvolumeexaminesuchissuesas:
• links between the emergence of the genre and a new culture of
reading and writing for pleasure, accessible for the first time to
thosepreviouslyexcludedfromsuchactivities,particularlywomen
andtheworkingclasses
• the challenge this new culture represented to existing social
structures,asagrowingemphasisonliteracyallowedforincreased
classmobilityandnewlyflexiblenotionsofclass
• therelationshipbetweenprosefictionandtheriseofapublishing
andbook-marketingindustry,duetotheincreasedpopularityof
reading
• the development of romance fiction and the emerging sense of
‘nation’and‘nationalism’thataccompaniedit
• changing critical views of prose fiction, and the beginnings of a
tendencytoconsideritaninferiorortrivialartform.
What emerges is a compelling perspective on a sometimes ne-
glected genre: early modern prose fiction in reciprocal relation to
classdistinctions,andasahybridgenrethatabsorbedcultural,ideo-
logical, and historical strands of the age. Early Modern Prose Fiction is
ii EarlyModernProseFiction
a convincing case for the significance of the form and an important
studyforanyscholarorstudentofearlymodernEnglishculture.
Naomi Conn Liebler is a Professor of English and University Dis-
tinguished Scholar at Montclair State University. She has published
widely on Shakespeare and other early modern drama, and Mod-
ern American and European Drama, including Shakespeare’s Festive
Tragedy,1995.
Contributing authors include Sheila T.Cavanagh, Stephen Guy-
Bray,MaryEllenLamb,JoanPongLinton,SteveMentz,ConstanceC.
Relihan,GoranV.Stanivukovic,andthevolumeincludesanafterword
byArthurKinney.
Early Modern Prose Fiction
The cultural politics of reading
Naomi Conn Liebler
Firstpublished2007
byRoutledge
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Contents
Contributors vii
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction:theculturalpoliticsofreading 1
NAOMICONNLIEBLER
2 Daylabor:ThomasNasheandthepracticeof
proseinearlymodernEngland 18
STEVEMENTZ
3 Howtoturnproseintoliterature:thecaseof
ThomasNashe 33
STEPHENGUY-BRAY
4 Fishwives’tales:narrativeagency,female
subjectivity,andtellingtalesoutofschool 46
CONSTANCEC.RELIHAN
5 Englishrenaissanceromancesasconductbooks
foryoungmen 60
GORANV.STANIVUKOVIC
6 Mildred,belovedofthedevil,andthedangersof
excessiveconsumptioninRicheHisFarewellto
MilitarieProfession 79
MARY ELLENLAMB
vi Contents
7 ‘‘Whatishmynation?’’:LadyMaryWroth’s
interrogationsofpersonalandnationalidentity 98
SHEILAT.CAVANAGH
8 BullySt.George:RichardJohnson’sSeven
ChampionsofChristendomandthecreationofthe
bourgeoisnationalhero 115
NAOMICONNLIEBLER
9 Counterfeitingsovereignty,mockingmastery:
tricksterpoeticsandthecritiqueofromancein
Nashe’sUnfortunateTraveller 130
JOANPONGLINTON
10 Afterword 148
ARTHURF.KINNEY
Notes 153
Bibliography 166
Index 179
Contributors
Sheila T. Cavanagh is Masse-Martin/NEH Distinguished Teaching
ProfessoratEmoryUniversityinAtlanta,Georgia.Sheistheauthor
of Cherished Torment: The Emotional Geography of Lady Mary Wroth’s
Urania(Duquesne2001)andWantonEyesandChasteDesires:Female
Sexuality in The Faerie Queene (Indiana 1994) and numerous
articles on Renaissance literature and pedagogy. She is also the
Director of the Emory Women Writers Resource Project, which
receivedamajorgrantfromtheNEH.
Stephen Guy-Bray is Associate Professor of English at the University
ofBritishColumbia.HeistheauthorofHomoeroticSpace:ThePoetics
of Loss in Renaissance Literature (Toronto 2002), Loving in Verse:
PoeticInfluenceasErotic (forthcomingfromTorontoin2006),and
ofarticlesandbookchapters,chieflyonRenaissancepoetry.Heis
currentlyworkingonabook,tentativelytitledAgainstReproduction,
ontheoriesoftextualproductionintheRenaissance.
Arthur F. Kinney is Thomas W. Copeland Professor of Literary His-
tory and Director of the Massachusetts Center for Renaissance
Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His most re-
centbooks—Shakespeare,Macbeth,andtheCulturalMoment (Wayne
State 2000), Shakespeare by Stages (Blackwell 2003), Shakespeare’s
Webs˙ (Routledge 2004), andShakespeare and Cognition (Routledge
2006)—deal with the impact of cognitive theory on the way Eliz-
abethans saw Shakespeare’s plays. In the spring of 2006 he was
giventhePaulOskarKristellerAwardforLifetimeAchievementby
the RenaissanceSociety of America, the highest honorgiven to a
Renaissancescholar.
MaryEllenLambisProfessorofEnglishatSouthernIllinoisUniversity
atCarbondale.SheisauthorofGenderandAuthorshipintheSidney
viii Contributors
Circle (Wisconsin 1990) and Popular Culture in Shakespeare, Spenser
andJonson(forthcomingfromRoutledge2006)aswellasnumerous
essays on Shakespeare and his contemporaries. She is currently
workingonalargerprojectonearlymodernwomenreaderswith
andagainstcontemporarydiscoursesofconsumption.For2005–6
sheisaVisitingFellowattheMassachusettsCenterforRenaissance
Studies.
Naomi Conn Liebler is Professor of English and University Distin-
guishedScholaratMontclairStateUniversityinNewJersey.Sheis
theauthorofShakespeare’s FestiveTragedy: TheRitual Foundationsof
Genre (Routledge 1995), co-editor, with John Drakakis, of Tragedy
(Longman1998),andeditorofTheFemaleTragicHeroinEnglishRe-
naissanceDrama(Palgrave2002).Shehaswrittennumerousarticles
onShakespeareandotherearlymodernwriters,includingRichard
Johnson. She is currently studying ‘‘Shakespeare’s Geezers,’’ rep-
resentationsandnegotiationsofoldageinallofhisdramaticand
poeticgenres.
JoanPongLintonisAssociateProfessorofEnglishatIndianaUniver-
sity.HerpublicationsincludeTheRomanceoftheNewWorld:Gender
andtheLiteraryFormationsofEnglishColonialism (Cambridge1998),
and essays on early modern prose fiction and on Anne Askew.
Hercurrentresearchfocusesontrickster poeticsinearlymodern
Englishliteratureanddrama.
Steve Mentz is Assistant Professor of English at St. John’s University
in New York City. He is the author of Romance for Sale in Early
Modern England: The Rise of Prose Fiction (Ashgate 2006) and co-
editorofRoguesandEarlyModernEnglishCulture (Michigan2004),
andofnumerousarticlesonearlymoderndramaandprose.Heis
currentlyworkingonastudyofshipwrecknarrativesfromHakluyt
toDefoe.
Constance C. Relihan is Hargis Professor of English Literature and
AssociateDeanforAcademicAffairsintheCollegeofLiberalArts
at Auburn University. She is the author of Fashioning Authority:
TheDevelopmentofElizabethanNovelisticDiscourses(KentState1994),
Cosmographical Glasses: Geographic Discourse, Gender, and Elizabethan
Fiction (Kent State 2004), editor of Framing Elizabethan Fictions:
Contemporary Approaches to Early Modern Narrative Prose (Kent State
1996), and co-editor, with Goran V. Stanivukovic, of Prose Fiction
andEarlyModernSexualities(Palgrave2003).Sheiscurrentlyatwork
onaneditionofWestwardforSmelts.
Contributors ix
Goran V. Stanivukovic teaches Shakespeare and Renaissance Liter-
ature at the University of Sheffield. He has published a critical
editionofEmanuelForde’sOrnatusandArtesia(Dovehouse2003),
andeditedvolumes,OvidandtheRenaissanceBody(Toronto2001)
andProseFictionandEarlyModernSexualities,1570–1640 (co-edited
with Constance C. Relihan, Palgrave 2003). His edited volume,
Re-MappingtheMediterraneanWorldinEarlyModernEnglishWritings,
will be published by Palgrave. He is working on a book on prose
romances,fictionsofmasculinity,andMediterraneantravels.