- Description
- 1 online resource
- Summary
- Against the backdrop of countless apologetic justifications for the value of literature and the humanities, 'Futile Pleasures' reframes the current conversation by returning to the literary culture of early modern England, a culture whose defensive posture toward literature rivals and shapes our own. During the Renaissance, poets justified the value of their work on the basis of the notion that the purpose of poetry is to please and instruct, that it must be both delightful and useful. Many of these writers faced the possibility that the pleasures of literature may be in conflict with the demand to be useful and valuable. Analysing therhetoric of pleasure and the pleasure of rhetoric in texts by William Shakespeare, Roger Ascham, Thomas Nashe, Edmund Spenserand John Milton, McEleney explores the ambivalence these writersdisplay towards literature's potential for useless, frivolous vanity.
- Subject
- Note
- This edition previously issued in print: 2017.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Audience (note)
- Source of Description (note)
- Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on July 31, 2017).
- ISBN
- 9780823272709
- OCLC
- EDZ0001719137
- Author
McEleney, Corey, author.
- Title
Futile pleasures : early modern literature and the limits of utility / Corey McEleney.
- Publisher
New York : Fordham University Press, 2017.
- Edition
First edition.
- Type of Content
text
- Type of Medium
computer
- Type of Carrier
online resource
- Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Audience
Specialized.
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