Sonnet Sequences and Social Distinction in Renaissance England By Christopher Warley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press 2005 | 256 Pages | ISBN: 0521842549 | PDF | 1 MB
Publisher: Cambridge University Press 2005 | 256 Pages | ISBN: 0521842549 | PDF | 1 MB
Why were sonnet sequences popular in Renaissance England? In this study, Christopher Warley suggests that sonneteers created a vocabulary to describe, and to invent, new forms of social distinction before an explicit language of social class existed. The tensions inherent in the genre - between lyric and narrative, between sonnet and sequence - offered writers a means of reconceptualizing the relation between individuals and society, a way to try to come to grips with the broad social transformations taking place at the end of the sixteenth century.