Spenser's Famous Flight
Author | : Patrick Cheney |
Publisher | : University of Toronto Press |
Total Pages | : 565 |
Release | : 1993-12-15 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781487596477 |
ISBN-13 | : 1487596472 |
Rating | : 4/5 (472 Downloads) |
Download or read book Spenser's Famous Flight written by Patrick Cheney and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1993-12-15 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Spenser's famous Flight, Patrick Cheney challenges the received wisdom about the shape and goal of Spenser's literary career. He contends that Spenser's idea of a literary career is not strictly the convential Virgilian pattern of pastoral to epic, but a Christian revision of that pattern in light of Petrarch and the Reformation. Cheney demonstrates that, far from changing his mind about his career as a result of disillusionment, Spenser embarks upon and completes a daring progress that secures his status as an Orphic poet. In October, Spenser calls his idea of a literary career the 'famous flight.' Both classical and Christian culture has authorized the myth of the winged poet as a primary myth of fame and glory. Cheney shows that throughout his poetry Spenser relies on an image of flight to accomplish his highest goal.