Metaphysical Wit

Erscheinungsjahr 2006
ISBN: 978-0-521-03529-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 282 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 404 g

English metaphysical poetry, from Donne to Marvell, is notoriously witty. A. J. Smith seeks the reason for the central importance of wit in the thinking of the metaphysical poets and argues that metaphysical wit is essentially different from other modes of wit current in Renaissance Europe. Formal theories and rhetorics of wit are considered both for their theoretical import and their appraisals of wit in practice. Prevailing fashions of witty invention are scrutinized in Italian, French and Spanish writings, so as to bring out the nature and effect of various forms of wit: conceited, hieroglyphic, transformational and others from which the metaphysical mode is distinguished. He locates the basis of Renaissance wit in the received conception of the created order and a theory of literary innovation inherent in Humanist belief, which led to novel couplings of time and eternity, body and soul, man and God.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smith, A. J.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Drastic devices; 2. Mirror of creation; 3. Courtly conceits; 4. Intelligible images; 5. Arts of ingenuity; 6. Metaphorical wit; 7. Metaphysical wit; 8. Sacred earth; Notes; Index.