Description

Book Synopsis

Patricia Vicari demonstrates Burton’s control over rhetorical strategies and selection of materials in one of the great prose works of the English Renaissance, The Anatomy of Melancholy.

She argues that Burton’s aim of curing melancholy is both pastoral and therapeutic, since melancholy is both a disease and the state of unregeneracy, but the ultimate authorial presence is that of the preacher trying to bring about conversion. One of his major strategies is to disguise that presence. Throughout much of the book attention is directed toward worldly matters and secular knowledge. The immediate authorial presence therefor is that of ‘Robert the experienced,’ another victim of melancholy, offering the record of his own self-cure as a main persuasive tactic.

Vicari examines the kinds of knowledges that Burton exhibits to the reader in three chapters dealing with nature, God, and man. In each Vicari singles out for more detailed discussion special

The View from Minervas Tower

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    A Paperback by Eleanor Patricia Vicari

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      Book details

      Publisher University of Toronto Press
      Published 12/15/1989 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN-13 9781487585402
      978-1487585402
      ISBN-10 1487585403
      Also in:
      Literary studies: c 1400 to c 1600

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Patricia Vicari demonstrates Burton’s control over rhetorical strategies and selection of materials in one of the great prose works of the English Renaissance, The Anatomy of Melancholy.

      She argues that Burton’s aim of curing melancholy is both pastoral and therapeutic, since melancholy is both a disease and the state of unregeneracy, but the ultimate authorial presence is that of the preacher trying to bring about conversion. One of his major strategies is to disguise that presence. Throughout much of the book attention is directed toward worldly matters and secular knowledge. The immediate authorial presence therefor is that of ‘Robert the experienced,’ another victim of melancholy, offering the record of his own self-cure as a main persuasive tactic.

      Vicari examines the kinds of knowledges that Burton exhibits to the reader in three chapters dealing with nature, God, and man. In each Vicari singles out for more detailed discussion special

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