Allegory, Space and the Material World in the Writings of Edmund Spenser

This book provides a radical reassessment of Spenserian allegory, in particular of The Faerie Queene, in the light of contemporary historical and theoretical interests in space and material culture. It explores the ambiguous and fluctuating attention to materiality, objects, and substance in the poetics of The Faerie Queene, and discusses the way that Spenser's creation of alle...

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This book provides a radical reassessment of Spenserian allegory, in particular of The Faerie Queene, in the light of contemporary historical and theoretical interests in space and material culture. It explores the ambiguous and fluctuating attention to materiality, objects, and substance in the poetics of The Faerie Queene, and discusses the way that Spenser's creation of allegorical meaning makes use of this materiality, and transforms it. It suggests further that a critical engagement with materiality (which has been so important to the recent study of early modern drama) must come, in the case of allegorical narrative, through a study of narrative and physical space, and in this context it goes on to provide a reading of the spatial dimensions of the poem - quests and battles, forests, castles and hovels - and the spatial characteristics of Spenser's other writings. The book reaffirms the need to place Spenser in his historical contexts - philosophical and scientific, military and architectural - in early modern England, Ireland and Europe, but also provides a critical reassessment of this literary historicism. Dr CHRISTOPHER BURLINSON is a Research Fellow in English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

CONTENTS......Page 6
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS......Page 8
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 12
ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS......Page 14
PREFACE......Page 16
Part I: Space and Materiality in the Realm of Allegorical Romance......Page 18
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CONTENTS......Page 6
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS......Page 8
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 12
ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS......Page 14
PREFACE......Page 16
Part I: Space and Materiality in the Realm of Allegorical Romance......Page 18
1. Accounting for the Material in Spenser’s Allegory......Page 20
2. Space, Place, and Location: Inside and Outside the Poem......Page 39
Part II: Architectural Space and the Status of the Object inThe Faerie Queene......Page 62
3. Galleries: Space, Mythography, and the Object......Page 64
4. Royal Chambers: Space and Presence......Page 90
Part III: Beleaguered Spaces......Page 112
5. ‘Goodly Workemanship’: Fortifications and the Body......Page 114
6. Defended Spaces, Fast Spaces, Proper Spaces......Page 145
7. The Stones of Kilcolman: Spenserian Biography, the Ruin, and the Material Fragment......Page 166
Part IV: The Physical and Allegorized Landscape......Page 182
8. Deforestation and the Spenserian Wood......Page 184
9. The Houses of the Poor......Page 212
CONCLUSION......Page 237
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 240
INDEX......Page 264
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