In The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson, Jack Lynch explores eighteenth-century British conceptions of the Renaissance, and the historical, intellectual, and cultural uses to which the past was put during the period. Scholars, editors, historians, religious thinkers, linguists and literary critics of the period all defined themselves in relation to 'the last age' or 'the age of Elizabeth'. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thinkers reworked older historical schemes to suit their own needs, turning to the ages of Petrarch and Poliziano, Erasmus and Scaliger, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Queen Elizabeth to define their culture in contrast to the preceding age. They derived a powerful sense of modernity from the comparison, which proved essential to the constitution of a national character. This interdisciplinary study will be of interest to cultural as well as literary historians of the eighteenth century.
| ISBN: | 9780521143974 |
| Publication date: | 20th May 2010 |
| Author: | Jack Rutgers University, New Jersey Lynch |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 238 pages |
| Genres: |
Literary studies: general Literary theory |
In The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson, Jack Lynch explores eighteenth-century British conceptions of the Renaissance, and the historical, intellectual, and cultural uses to which the past was put during the period. Scholars, editors, historians, religious thinkers, linguists and literary critics of the period all defined themselves in relation to 'the last age' or 'the age of Elizabeth'. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century thinkers reworked older historical schemes to suit their own needs, turning to the ages of Petrarch and Poliziano, Erasmus and Scaliger, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Queen Elizabeth to define their culture in contrast to the preceding age. They derived a powerful sense of modernity from the comparison, which proved essential to the constitution of a national character. This interdisciplinary study will be of interest to cultural as well as literary historians of the eighteenth century.
The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson features in the following genres: Literary studies: general, Literary theory
The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson is available in Paperback
The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson was written by Jack Rutgers University, New Jersey Lynch and published by Cambridge University Press
The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson has 238 pages
£30.60