Jonsonian Discriminations: The Humanist Poet and the Praise of True NobilityUniversity of Toronto Press, 1992 - 306 pages "At the heart of all Ben Jonson's nondramatic poetry, argues Michael McCanles, lies the concept of true nobility. Jonson sought to transform the inherited aristocracy of England into an aristocracy of humanist virtue in which he could claim a place through his achievement of true nobility by the merits of his own intellectual labours. In this survey of all Jonson's non-dramatic poetry, McCanles identifies a range of dialectical and contrastive forms through which this concern was rendered poetically." "He analyses the contrastive forms in discussions of Jonson's prosody, his use of homonymy and synonymy, and of metaphor. He coins the term 'contrastivity' to encompass the play of semantic choices directed by Jonson's use of suprasegmentals at the local level of poetic technique, and the reader's process of reading wherein he or she confirms the validity of a poem's statements by recreating the process of selection/rejection that went into its creation." "Thematically, McCanles suggests that the vera nobilitas argument is in fact four distinct arguments in various ways mutually contradictory, collectively both supporting and subverting aristocratic and monarchical hierarchies. Thus he finds Jonson constrained to employ this argument in addressing aristocratic friends, patrons, and the monarch himself, with careful diplomacy in order to negate the subversive dimensions of his own advice and praise." "Employing the resources generated by the theoretical analysis of contrastivity in the first chapter, McCanles demonstrates the considerable complexity of Jonson's poetry, generally underestimated in current scholarship."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
Chapter One The Poetics of Discrimination | 3 |
Upgraded Coordinates Disjunctive Sequences | 21 |
Boundary Crossing and Negative Definition | 30 |
Copyright | |
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Jonsonian Discriminations: The Humanist Poet and the Praise of True Nobility MCCANLES No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
achieved addressed appears argues aristocratic attacks authority becomes calls capacity chapter claim classical clothes concerns context contrast court criticism defined depends develops discriminations discussed distinction emphasis English epideictic epigram ethical fact false fear finally finds flattery friends gives honour humanist implies important inner insists James John Jones Jonson Jonson's poetry judgment kind king lack Lady language less lines literal marks matter meaning merit metaphor mind nature never nobilitas argument noble once opening play poem poet poet's poetic poetry political position possess possible praise present punctuation question reader reason relations Renaissance rhetoric satire says seeks semiotic sense signify signs similar social speak statement status thing thou thought titles translation true nobility truth turn understanding vera nobilitas argument verse vice virtue writing