Author Description
The sensational narratives of John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Thomas Lodge established prose fiction as an independent genre in the late sixteenth century. The texts they created are a paradoxical blend of outrageous plotting and rhetorical sophistication, high and low culture. Although their works were feverishly devoured by contemporary readers, these writers are usually only known to students as sources for Shakespearean comedy. Fictions of Authorship in Late Elizabethan Narratives re-examines some of the pamphleteers earlier critics christened the 'University Wits', young professionals who exposed their education and talents to the still new and uncertain world of mass market publication. These texts chart their authors' disenchantment with the limitations of romance and of their own careers, yet they also form an alternative canon of vernacular writing, which is both self-referential and self-questioning. Shocking, unpredictable, and very engaging, these narratives provide a vivid commentary on the interface between popular taste and 'English literature'.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This work investigates how late sixteenth-century prose writers navigated the tension between their academic training and the demands of an emerging mass-market publishing industry. Katharine Wilson, an academic specialist in Renaissance literature, analyzes the works of John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Thomas Lodge to argue that their narratives represent a deliberate, self-conscious attempt to define the boundaries of English vernacular fiction. By examining the interplay between rhetorical artifice and commercial viability, the author demonstrates how these writers used their texts to critique both the conventions of romance and their own professional status as authors.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of the 'University Wits' and their contribution to the development of early modern prose fiction.
- Examination of the intersection between high-culture rhetoric and popular sensationalist plotting.
- Case studies focusing on the works of John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Thomas Lodge.
Scope Limits
- The study does not provide a comprehensive biography of the authors, focusing instead on their literary output and professional identity.
- The analysis is restricted to late Elizabethan narratives and does not extend into the Jacobean period.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars recognize this text as a significant contribution to the study of early modern authorship and the professionalization of the writer in the sixteenth century. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is intended for specialists in Renaissance literature and history.
Page Count:
198
Publication Date:
2006-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0191514403
ISBN-13:
9780191514401
Literary Criticism
Academic
English & College Success
History of the Novel
English literature
English
Community Tags
Similar Books
