The Enigmatic Narrator: The Voicing of Same-Sex Love in the Poetry of John Donne (Renaissance and Baroque)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.93 (725 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0820424919 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 271 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-08-11 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
The Author: George Klawitter holds a master's degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan, and a doctorate in British Renaissance Literature from the University of Chicago. He has edited the poetry of Richard Barnfield and published numerous articles in medieval and Renaissance studies.
John Lauritsen said Male love in the poetry of John Donne. Although a bit wild in his youth, John Donne went on to become Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral and the most influential preacher of his time. His sermons are among the most celebrated in the English language. The received image of Donne as a man whose love life involved only women, progressing from lesser to greater respectability, has now been detonated by George Klawitter, who makes a strong case that male love lies at the heart of some of his greatest love poems.In almost half of Donne's love poems, both narrator and love-object are ge. Never Done with Donne John klawitterg When reflecting on the burnished metaphores of John Donne, legendary poet, one can easily be inclined to forget the intimate realities of John Donne, the person. It is difficult, if not impossible to understand the one without considering the other. And so it is that George Klawitter, Doctor of Literature and an accomplished poet himself sheds light on the life and times of literary giant who has been for many an enigmatic wraith in the shadows of his own genius. An absolute 'must read' for any serious researcher of Donne.
Although John Donne enjoyed a reputation as a «visitor of ladies» during his lifetime, the poetry that he left in manuscript can lead modern readers to doubt that the objects of his affections were always women. Klawitter's study contends that, in Donne's later poems that have traditionally been read as heterosexual expressions of love, readers can find themselves lost in a welter of pronouns that, often insufficiently determinate of gender, can fit convincingly in a homoerotic context.
No one who has read this provocative book will be able to read Donne's erotic poems in the exclusively heterosexual context that traditional criticism has provided. 'The Enigmatic Narrator' is bound to have an impact on Donne studies. -'The Enigmatic Narrator' is a courageous book, providing a cogent recontextualization of Donne's secular poetry amid the discourse of same-sex male love. Reading the poems liberated from heterosexual presuppositions, Klawitter offers the most sustained and compelling account available of Donne's verse letters to his male friends. With this book, Klawitter assume