Description
Book SynopsisSeth Lerer reveals the culture of spectatorship and voyeurism that shaped early Tudor English literary life. Through close readings of early Tudor poetry, court drama, letters, anthologies and printed books, Lerer illuminates a world of displayed bodies, surreptitious letters and transgressive performances.
Trade Review"...Lerer has written an elegant book. His chapters are grounded in close readings of literary texts, and he has presented a nuanced, challenging argument in well-turned phrases free of theoretical jargon." Mary Hill Cole, Mary Baldwin College
"Lerer's is one of the most impressive of the volumes I've read." Frank Kermode in the London Review of Books
"Lerer also offers some strong readings, especially of King Henry's love letters. And he comments well on manuscript collections of verse. This book belongs in libraries supporting graduate work in English literature and history." E.D. Hill, Choice
Table of ContentsList of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Note on editions and abbreviations; 1. Pretexts: Chaucer's Pandarus and the origins of courtly discourse; 2. The King's Pandars: performing courtiership in the 1510s; 3. The King's hand: body politics in the letters of Henry VIII; 4. Private quotations, public memories: Troilus and Criseyde and the politics of the manuscript anthology; 5. Wyatt, Chaucer, Tottel: the verse epistle and the subjects of the courtly lyric; Notes; Index.
