Theologies of Language in English Renaissance Literature

• Utgivningsdatum: 2014-10-14
• Mått: 155 x 226 x 23 mm
• Vikt: 463 g
• Format: Häftad
• Språk: Engelska
• Antal sidor: 316
• Förlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• ISBN: 9780739190647

• Litteraturvetenskap

James S. Baumlin is professor of English at Missouri State University, where he teaches renaissance literature, the history of rhetoric, and critical theory. A graduate of Georgetown (B.A. 1977) and Brown University (Ph.D. 1983), he has authored or co-edited a dozen books on diverse subjects. With SUNY Press, Southern Methodist University Press, the University of Missouri Press, and NCTE, he has published in fields of classical and contemporary rhetoric, seventeenth-century English poetry, composition pedagogy, and critical theory; with Moon City Press, he has published extensively in fields of creative nonfiction and regional history. Including chapters in edited collections, Baumlin has authored or co-authored more than one hundred book chapters, peer-reviewed essays, encyclopedia articles, scholarly notes, and reviews. His work has received two national awards and been reprinted in several anthologies and textbooks. Supplementing his scholarship, Baumlin has co-authored scripts for the stage, which have been video-recorded and performed professionally in theatres throughout Southwest Missouri (including Branson). Baumlin founded and serves as a senior editor of Moon City Press, an academic small press distributed nationally in consortium with the University of Arkansas Press. He is also a past president of the South-Central Renaissance Conference, the first and oldest active renaissance conference in North America. His wife, Tita French Baumlin, is a Shakespearian and fellow faculty member of the Missouri State University English Department. When he is not scholarly engaged, Baumlin sings with several arts groups, including Springfield’s Messiah Project and SRO Lyric Theatre. Overlooking Lake Springfield, his backyard is a local stomping ground for deer and wild turkey.

Extending a discussion of English rhetoric he began in John Donne and the Rhetorics of Renaissance Discourse (CH, Nov'91, 29-1348), Baumlin (Missouri State Univ.) focuses on the theologically inflected rhetorics of Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton. Following two chapters on Renaissance reading practices and adaptations of classical eloquence to Christian doctrine, he finds Hamlet's language mediating both Catholic and reformed beliefs. Three chapters present Donne's varied poetic personas of priest, apostate, and atheist. Three more chapters probe Milton's "kerygmatic and Spiritualist" rhetoric, which distinguishes it from that of Donne and classical theorists. Lycidas covertly derides the Laudian church, while Milton's "rhetoric of certitude" separates it from ancient models. Baumlin reads numerous poetic and prose texts meticulously; especially where Donne is concerned, he offers polyvalent readings stressing multiple voices and techniques rather than arguing for more restrictive, definitive interpretations….in all this volume helpfully explores the intersection of early modern rhetoric and faith. It deserves a place alongside such recent studies as Brian Cummings's The Literary Culture of the Reformation (2002). Summing Up: Recommended.

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