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Fordham University Press - Corey McEleney

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254 pages

English

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Honorable Mention, 2018 MLA Prize for a First BookAgainst the defensive backdrop of countless apologetic justifications for the value of literature and the humanities, Futile Pleasures reframes the current conversation by returning to the literary culture of early modern England, a culture whose defensive posture toward literature rivals and shapes our own.During the Renaissance, poets justified the value of their work on the basis of the notion that the purpose of poetry is to please and instruct, that it must be both delightful and useful. At the same time, many of these writers faced the possibility that the pleasures of literature may be in conflict with the demand to be useful and valuable. Analyzing the rhetoric of pleasure and the pleasure of rhetoric in texts by William Shakespeare, Roger Ascham, Thomas Nashe, Edmund Spenser, and John Milton, McEleney explores the ambivalence these writers display toward literature's potential for useless, frivolous vanity. Tracing that ambivalence forward to the modern era, this book also shows how contemporary critics have recapitulated Renaissance humanist ideals about aesthetic value. Against a longstanding tradition that defensively advocates for the redemptive utility of literature, Futile Pleasures both theorizes and performs the queer pleasures of futility. Without ever losing sight of the costs of those pleasures, McEleney argues that playing with futility may be one way of moving beyond the impasses that modern humanists, like their early modern counterparts, have always faced.

Sujets

Sociologie, société et politique

Gender studies

Informations

Publié par	Fordham University Press
Date de parution	02 janvier 2017
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780823272686
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1350€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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F u t i l e P l e a s u r e s

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Futile Pleasures

Early Modern Literature and the Limits of Utility

Corey McEleney

f o r d h a m u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s New York 2017

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McEleney, Corey, author. Title: Futile pleasures : early modern literature and the limits of utility / CoreyMcEleney. Description: New York : Fordham University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identiﬁers: LCCN 2016013983 | ISBN 9780823272655 (hardback) | ISBN 978082327266(2paper) Subjects: LCSH: English literature—Early modern, 1500 –1700 —History and criticism. | Pleasure in literature. | Senses and sensation in literature. | Literature and society—England—History—16th century. | Literature and society—England—History—17th century. | BISAC: LITERARY CRITICISM / Renaissance. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies. Classiﬁcation: LCC PR421 .M29 2017 | DDC 820.9/003—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016013983

Printed in the United States of America

19 18 17 5 4 3 2 1

First edition

for Chris Holmes

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c o n t e n t s

Futilitarianism: An Introduction

1. Pleasure without Proﬁt 2. Bonﬁ re of the Vanities 3. Art for Nothing’s Sake 4. Spenser’s Unhappy Ends 5.BeyoSnudblimation Coda: Less Matter, More Art

Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

vii

15 37 65 102 127 161

170 173 217 237

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