Description
Book SynopsisImitating Authors is a major study of the theory and practice of imitatio (the imitation of one author by another) from antiquity to the present day. It extends from early Greek texts right up to recent fictions about clones and artificial humans, and illuminates both the theory and practice of imitation. At its centre lie the imitating authors of the English Renaissance, including Ben Jonson and the most imitated imitator of them all, John Milton.Imitating Authors argues that imitation was not simply a matter of borrowing words, or of alluding to an earlier author. Imitators learnt practices from earlier writers. They imitated the structures and forms of earlier writing in ways that enabled them to create a new style which itself could be imitated. That made imitation an engine of literary change. Imitating Authors also shows how the metaphors used by theorists to explain this complex practice fed into works which were themselves imitations, and how those metaphors have come to influence present-day anxieties about imitation human beings and artificial forms of intelligence. It explores relationships between imitation and authorial style, its fraught connections with plagiarism, and how emerging ideas of genius and intellectual property changed how imitation was practised. In refreshing and jargon-free prose Burrow explains not just what imitation was in the past, but how it influences the present, and what it could be in the future. Imitating Authors includes detailed discussion of Plato, Roman rhetorical theory, Virgil, Lucretius, Petrarch, Cervantes, Ben Jonson, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Trade ReviewAny scholar interested in literary imitation would profit from reading Imitating Authors, while those interested in Renaissance literary culture will find it particularly valuable. I know of no better introduction to the long, intricate history of imitatio. * William Ramsay, Ben Jonson Journal *
Burrow's home turf is early modern English literature, but he is an early modernist of exceptional range, extending across to the Continent, back to classical antiquity, and forward to contemporary poetry and fiction. He is also uncommonly good at explaining recondite matters in plain English. * Tobias Gregory, London Review of Books *
one of the finest authors of the English language in this century...this is a book of intoxicating depth that will leave many intelligent readers astonished at their own ignorance in comparison...I highly recommend a full engagement with Burrow's text. * Dr Clifford Cunningham, University of Southern Queensland, Sun News Tucson *
There is a genuine challenge to our presumptions about creation and authorship. * Geoffrey Heptonstall, P.N. REVIEW *
Imitating Authors offers lessons for creative writers as well as critics, signalling a world of literary predecessors, practices and forms waiting for a knowingly imitative literary culture to inherit it once again. * Charles Green, University of Chichester *
Table of ContentsPreface Abbreviations and a Note on the Texts Introduction Part 1: Antiquity 1: From Mimēsis to Imitatio: Before and After Plato Building Bodies: Imitatio and the Roman Rhetorical Tradition Dreamitation: Lucretius, Homer, Virgil Part 2: Early Modernity 4: Petrarchan Transformations 5: Adaptive Imitation: Ciceronians, Courtiers and Quixotes 6: Formal Imitation: The 'Leaden-Headed Germans' and Their English Heirs 7: Ben Jonson: Formal Imitation Part 3: Milton and After 8: Milton: Modelling the Ancients 9: Imitation in the Age of Literary Property: Pope to Wordsworth 10: The Promethean Moment: Mary Shelley and Milton's Monstrous Progeny Posthuman Postscript: Poems more Durable than Brass Bibliography
