Description
Book SynopsisEchoes of Desire variously invokes and interrogates a number of historicist and feminist premises about Tudor and Stuart literature by examining the connections between the anti-Petrarchan tradition and mainstream Petrarchan poetry. It also addresses some of the broader implications of contemporary critical methodologies. Heather Dubrow offers an alternative to the two predominant models used in previous treatments of Petrarchism: the all-powerful poet and silenced mistress on the one hand and the poet as subservient patron on the other.
Trade ReviewDubrow’s attempt to renegotiate a definition of Petrarchism and its counterdiscourses ultimately succeeds because she insists on the value of traditional literary formalism, including attention to epigram and the treatment of literary genres as ‘metaphors for perspectives and attitudes. Her sensitive and nuanced close readings of verse reveal quite specifically how diacritical desire functions within these poems and how these poems, in turn, participate in a critical dialogue. This thoughtful and thought- provoking book deserves our attention.
-- Jeffrey N. Nelson * Sixteenth Century Journal *
This book is packed with research and revelations about the Renaissance lyric tradition, set forth in a consummate critical style.
* Clio *
