Description
Book SynopsisUncommon Tongues explores the tension between the political value of eloquence and its classical definition in sixteenth-century English literature, locating eccentricity and unfamiliarity at the heart of pedagogical, rhetorical, and literary culture.
Trade Review"Nicholson complicates the triumphalist visions of earlier scholarship with a nuanced account of how England negotiated the marginality of its own status vis-à-vis the classical tradition, and the strangeness of eloquence per se, as a defamiliarized version of the language." *
Recent Studies in the English Renaissance *
"Nicholson uniquely observes that contrary to what is commonly thought, the sixteenth-century writers purposefully sought linguistic eccentricity as a response against an ideal, traditional form of eloquence." *
Sixteenth Century Journal *
"An excellent discussion of ideas about style among English Renaissance writers, noteworthy for its remarkable lucidity and eloquence." * Paula Blank, College of William and Mary *
"An illuminating study.
Uncommon Tongues opens up a very different understanding of the category and the lineaments of English eloquence. Nicholson is a very observant, ingenious, and persuasive literary critic." * Jeff Dolven, Princeton University *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Antisocial Orpheus
Chapter 1. Good Space and Time: Humanist Pedagogy and the Uses of Estrangement
Chapter 2. The Commonplace and the Far-Fetched: Mapping Eloquence in the English Art of Rhetoric
Chapter 3. "A World to See": Euphues's Wayward Style
Chapter 4. Pastoral in Exile: Colin Clout and the Poetics of English Alienation
Chapter 5. "Conquering Feet": Tamburlaine and the Measure of English
Coda: Eccentric Shakespeare
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
