Renaissance Literature and Culture

Description

The guide to Renaissance Literature and Culture provides students with the ideal introduction to literature and its context from 1533-1642, including: - the historical, cultural and intellectual background including religion, politics, exploration and visual culture - major writers and genres including Spenser, Sidney, Marlowe, Shakespeare and Jonson - concise explanations of key terms needed to understand the literature and criticism - key critical approaches to modernism from contemporary critics to the present - a chronology mapping historical events and literary works and further reading including websites and electronic resources.

Lisa Hopkins is Professor of English at University of Sheffield Hallam. She has published numerous works on Shakespeare including her most recent work, Beginning Shakespeare (2005) and has written on film adaptations including Screening the Gothic. She is the Senior Editor of the online journal, Early Modern Literary Studies. Matthew Steggle is Reader in English at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He is editor of the ejournal Early Modern Literary Studies, and a Contributing Editor to The Cambridge Works of Ben Jonson.

"Anyone who has ever wished for the background of English Renaissance literature in a nutshell will appreciate this book. Lisa Hopkins and Matthew Steggle squeeze a tremendous amount of readable information into a mere 144 pages, neatly laid out in a brief introduction and four major sections, each of which is divided further into multiple short subsections. An index allows the reader to locate quickly people, ideas, and literary pieces discussed in the text...Renaissance Literature and Culture provides important background material for study in a readably compressed format, along with suggested resources for further study." -Sherron Lux, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Fall 2008 'a wide-ranging and eminently readable introduction to sixteenth and seventeenth-century literature Its discussions take the student on a journey through key areas of historical, religious and social change and engage at every turn with current scholarship in a lively and thought-provoking manner. Informative accounts of the publishing market and its differing consumers, of stage history and questions of genre, for example, are all focused in a way which will excite the interest of the student. Broader themes such as those of gender and sexuality, race and nationhood are also explored and offer valuable opportunities to connect Renaissance cultural history with centres of debate in our own times. This is an ideal place to start for anyone turning to Renaissance literature for the first time.' - Professor Andrew Hiscock, University of Wales, Bangor * Blurb from reviewer * 'This looks excellent; I shall look forward to seeing the first texts.' - Jennifer Nicholson, University of Newcastle * Blurb from reviewer * 'Your new series looks interesting and timely' - Professor Elaine Treharne, University of Leicester (Chair of the English Association) * Blurb from reviewer * 'this is a book which we would like our first years to have read - a guide which gives the information without which a student would be entirely at sea.' - Professor Lisa Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University (from proposal) * Blurb from reviewer * '[This] series offers both the student reader and teacher exciting and invaluable interventions in and reorientations around questions of history, culture, and period ... With brio, verve, and an admirable brevity, the series grounds our understanding of literature and culture in thought-provoking and highly original ways. ... an indispensible series that will set the benchmark for all such surveys and overviews.' - Julian Wolfreys, Professor of Victorian Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Florida. * Blurb from reviewer * '[These guides will] provide what students really want/need to know when they begin a module, in a way that makes sense before they've done the module itselfathe lack of this has really been my problem with survey books for students already on the market' - Leigh Wilson, University of Westminster (from proposal) * Blurb from reviewer *