Dancing Around the Well

The Circulation of Commonplaces in Renaissance Humanism
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-90-04-27439-6
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 232, 174 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 239 mm, Gewicht: 376 g

Reihe: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History

This study examines the transmission and transformation of commonplace wisdom in Renaissance humanism by tracing a series of filiations between classical sayings, anecdotes, and exampes and Renaissance poems, essays, and fictions. The circulation of commonplaces can be understood either as a process of reanimation and revitalization, where frozen sayings thaw out and come to life, or conversely as a process of immobilization and incrustation that petrifies tradition. The paradigmatic figure for this process is the proverbial dance around the well, which expresses both the danger and the compulsion of borrowed speech.

Zielgruppe

Students and teachers of European Renaissance literature and history, and all readers of Erasmus.

Autoren/Hrsg.

MacPhail, Eric M

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Literaturwissenschaft Mittel- & Neulateinische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Abbreviations
Introduction: Dancing Around the Well
1. In the Beginning there was Chaos
2. A Gem in its Setting
3. Words Frozen and Thawed
4. Rhapsody in Prose
5. The Mosaic of Speech
6. The Universal Library
7. In a Roman Mirror
Conclusion: Emptying the Well
Bibliography
Index locorum communium
Index rerum
Index nominum
Index Erasmianus

Über Autor(innen)

Eric MacPhail, Ph.D. (1988) Princeton University, is Professor of French at Indiana University. He has published widely on French Renaissance literature and on the classical tradition in Renaissance humanism, including The Sophistic Renaissance (Droz, 2011).