Spenserian Moments by Gordon Teskey (English) Hardcover Book

Description: Spenserian Moments by Gordon Teskey Gordon Teskey restores Edmund Spenser to prominence, revealing his epic The Faerie Queene as a grand, improvisatory project on human nature. Teskey compares Spenser to Milton, an avowed follower. While Miltons rigid ideology is now stale, Spensers allegories remain vital, inviting new questions and visions, heralding a constantly changing future. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description From the distinguished literary scholar Gordon Teskey comes an essay collection that restores Spenser to his rightful prominence in Renaissance studies, opening up the epic of The Faerie Queene as a grand, improvisatory project on human nature, and arguing-controversially-that it is Spenser, not Milton, who is the more important and relevant poet for the modern world.There is more adventure in The Faerie Queene than in any other major English poem. But the epic of Arthurian knights, ladies, and dragons in Faerie Land, beloved by C. S. Lewis, is often regarded as quaint and obscure, and few critics have analyzed the poem as an experiment in open thinking. In this remarkable collection, the renowned literary scholar Gordon Teskey examines the masterwork with care and imagination, explaining the theory of allegory-now and in Edmund Spensers Elizabethan age-and illuminating the poems improvisatory moments as it embarks upon fairy tale, myth, and enchantment.Milton, often considered the greatest English poet after Shakespeare, called Spenser his "original." But Teskey argues that while Miltons rigid ideology in Paradise Lost has failed the test of time, Spensers allegory invites engagement on contemporary terms ranging from power, gender, violence, and virtue ethics, to mobility, the posthuman, and the future of the planet. The Faerie Queene was unfinished when Spenser died in his forties. It is the brilliant work of a poet of youthful energy and philosophical vision who opens up new questions instead of answering old ones. The epics grand finale, "The Mutabilitie Cantos," delivers a vision of human life as dizzyingly turbulent and constantly changing, leaving a future open to everything. Author Biography Gordon Teskey, Professor of English at Harvard University, is a preeminent scholar of Spenser and Milton. He is editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Paradise Lost and author of Allegory and Violence, Delirious Milton (Harvard), and The Poetry of John Milton (Harvard), which won the Christian Gauss Award for literary criticism. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Humanities Center, is an Honored Scholar of the Milton Society of America, and delivered the Kathleen Williams Lecture on Spenser at the International Spenser Society in 2017. Review A tour de force and makes what is surely the best case for reading Spenser: that it is his open thinking that matters, not the particular substance of the poem. It will surely set the standard for future readings of Spensers work. -- Andrew Hadfield * Times Literary Supplement *Teskey demonstrates [that] those willing to look past the poems daunting reputation and its bristling armature of scholarly impedimenta might discover a lifelong—indeed, life-sustaining—obsession. -- Catherine Nicholson * New York Review of Books *Refigures the poet as an improvisatory artist whose work is most valuable as a continuous practice of thinking about aesthetic, moral, and philosophical issues…At its best, Spenserian Moments cogently captures the experience of reading the poem for those of us who love it. -- Mark Heberle * Claremont Review of Books *Teskey has a deep understanding of Spensers learning, language, and sense of tradition…Well worth reading. -- Jonathan Locke Hart * Renaissance and Reformation *Teskeys is among the strongest of this years Spenserian voices…Persuades by elegance and power of statement…There are wonderful things here. -- Joseph Lowenstein * Studies in English Literature *If any book can restore Spenser to his rightfully prominent place in studies of Renaissance literature—and poetic and philosophical history more broadly—this is the one. Gordon Teskey makes the strongest case in decades for Spensers brilliance and importance to both literary history and contemporary theory. The elegance and wit of this book, and the sheer force of intellect on display, will draw in any reader who has the good fortune to open it. -- Melissa E. Sanchez, University of PennsylvaniaGordon Teskey is among the most consistently surprising and interesting literary critics writing today, about any period or genre, and Spenser has always been at the heart of his concerns. Spenserian Moments will take its place on the shelf of necessary books about the poets poet. -- Jeff Dolven, Princeton UniversityMagisterial…The volume confirms Teskey as the most intellectually bold, expansive, and creative critic of Spenser currently writing…Spenserian Moments conveys less a method of reading than a way of being in the company of Spensers poetry that learns from and replicates some of its features as Teskey describes them…My admiration for Teskeys work does not imply agreement at every turn: his unparalleled talent for concise critical characterization and aphoristic contrast demands and spurs engagement rather than acceptance; his openness to thought provokes open thought. -- Joe Moshenska * Milton Quarterly * Review Quote Teskeys is among the strongest of this years Spenserian voices...Persuades by elegance and power of statement...There are wonderful things here. Details ISBN0674988442 Author Gordon Teskey ISBN-10 0674988442 ISBN-13 9780674988446 Format Hardcover Country of Publication United States Publisher Harvard University Press DEWEY 821.3 Pages 552 Language English Year 2019 UK Release Date 2019-12-17 Imprint Harvard University Press Place of Publication Cambridge, Mass AU Release Date 2019-12-17 NZ Release Date 2019-12-17 Audience Professional & Vocational Publication Date 2019-12-01 US Release Date 2019-12-01 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161736383;

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