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Early Modern Communi(cati)ons: Studies in Early Modern English Literature and Culture
Author(s): Kinga Földváry (Author, Editor), Erzsébet Stróbl (Author, Editor)
- Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
- Publication Date: 19 Dec. 2012
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 350 pages
- ISBN-10: 1443841862
- ISBN-13: 9781443841863
Book Description
As suggested by the title Early Modern Communi(cati)ons, the volume demonstrates that the connections and common points of reference within early modern studies bind Elizabethan and Jacobean cultural studies and Shakespearean investigations together in an unexpected number of ways, and this diversity of ties has been used as the main theme around which the thirteen essays have been organised. While the first group of essays deals with early modern culture, presenting the socio-historical context necessary for any in-depth literary investigation, as exemplified through analyses of outstanding literary achievements from the period, the second part of the volume focuses on the oeuvre of the most famous representative of the age, William Shakespeare, with individual chapters creating a tangible continuum, moving from the cultural and literary context that informs his works, to their interpretation in present-day performances and their theoretical backgrounds. In the same way as the volume comprises writings on a diverse but still coherent range of topics, the authorial team is equally representative of diversity and continuity at the same time. The authors include several senior scholars working in the Hungarian academic community, representing all significant research centres in the field from all over the country. A number of essays have been contributed by promising young talents as well.
Editorial Reviews
Review
This collection is an intellectually stimulating and academically noteworthy contribution to early modern studies; . . . the essays proffer a varied and intellectually delectable cornucopia of topics and perspectives. . . . The two parts of the volume fit finely together: the social and theological history complements the Shakespearean essays and vice versa. All of the contributions discuss vital and corresponding themes, while they dynamically engage current academic discourse: they are erudite, relevant, and up-to-date. At the same time, the volume s cohesion does not entail monotonous uniformity: the essays reflect their authors different styles and scholarly temperaments well, which makes reading the volume enjoyable and full of surprises. –Zoltán Márkus, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of English, Vassar College
Shakespeare studies has been a venerable business in Hungarian modern philology since the nineteenth century when the Bard was nationalized even to that extent that his name was Magyarized as Shakespeare Vilmos. Today at Hungarian English Departments, a great deal of original research as well as a variety of courses are devoted to Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Renaissance. The present volume offers a selection of these studies; the high quality essays have been written by the representatives of younger and senior generations of Hungarian scholars. The papers cover culture and literature from Queen Elizabeth, Spenser, Shakespeare, to Donne and Milton in view of their connection to high as well as contemporary popular culture –György E. Szönyi, University of Szeged / Central European University, Budapest
About the Author
Kinga Földváry, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in the Institute of English and American Studies at Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Piliscsaba, Hungary. Her main research interests, besides a close reading of William Harrison’s Description of Britain, include Shakespearean tragedy, problems of genre in the film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, and twentieth and twenty-first century British literature. Erzsébet Stróbl, PhD, is a Lecturer in the Institute of English Studies at Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Budapest, Hungary. Her research interests include early modern cultural history, political theory, urban history, and discourses on feminine authority. Among her principle publications are articles on the progresses of Queen Elizabeth I, the symbolism of the figure of the ‘wild man’ in Tudor courtly and civic performances, the early modern printed prayers about and for Queen Elizabeth, and the significance of the dance macabre motif in radical Protestant rhetoric and devotional works.
