'What is your substance, whereof are you made?' The formation of identity in Shakespeare's Sonnets to the Young Man

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, British
Cover of the book 'What is your substance, whereof are you made?' The formation of identity in Shakespeare's Sonnets to the Young Man by Anne Thoma, GRIN Publishing
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Anne Thoma ISBN: 9783638899031
Publisher: GRIN Publishing Publication: January 23, 2008
Imprint: GRIN Publishing Language: English
Author: Anne Thoma
ISBN: 9783638899031
Publisher: GRIN Publishing
Publication: January 23, 2008
Imprint: GRIN Publishing
Language: English

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Tubingen, course: Sonnet Cycles from the 16th to the 20th Centuries, 31 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Shakespeare's sonnets have often been discussed in terms of the degree of their autobiographical content. The question what role the persons which the poet addresses, a young man and a dark woman, had actually played in the author's life sparked as much debate as the opaque initials 'W. H.', a dedication by Thomas Thorpe, who had published a Quarto by the title of 'Shakespeare's Sonnets. Never before imprinted' in 1609 (Edmondson / Wells 4). Some critics were led to conclude their research with triumphant statements such as 'Shakespeare's Sonnets. The Problems solved', a title employed by A. L. Rowse in 1964. Rowse claims to have spotted the identity of the young man, the dark lady, the rival poet, as well as of 'W. H.'. His edition of the sonnets also includes a chapter called 'The Story: its Outlines' (24). Other critics have been focussing less on a coherent story with identifiable characters. In their analysis, they often take a purely immanent stance and are more concerned with how the poet, the speaking voice of the sonnets, establishes an identity, a private subjectivity and sensibility and in the course of his amorous encounters engages in a struggle to keep them afloat. I want to argue along the lines of those researchers who put the previously rather central issues of homosocial desire and Platonic and Petrarchan love into the lager context of what Stephen Greenblatt calls the 'self-fashioning' of the Renaissance individual (1). He points out that 'the power to impose a shape' upon oneself or another person is a major issue in the English Renaissance, the age of 'the formation of identity' (1 / 6). According to Colin Morris, there had been distinctions between 'types and individual representation' as early as 1020 (33 / 65), but A. J. Piesse states that 'self-interrogation' beyond a religious context began to loom only at the beginning of the sixteenth century (634). In the 80s, Stephen Greenblatt and Catherine Belsey stressed that 'any formulation of identity must be seen in the light of cultural context, that any exposition of self is a manifestation of a series of options, rather than something intrinsically different from anything else' (Piesse 635). In his work Sources of the Self of 1989, Charles Taylor differentiates along the lines of Plato and Aristotle between the importance of context and interior self for the individual (Ibid 635).

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Tubingen, course: Sonnet Cycles from the 16th to the 20th Centuries, 31 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Shakespeare's sonnets have often been discussed in terms of the degree of their autobiographical content. The question what role the persons which the poet addresses, a young man and a dark woman, had actually played in the author's life sparked as much debate as the opaque initials 'W. H.', a dedication by Thomas Thorpe, who had published a Quarto by the title of 'Shakespeare's Sonnets. Never before imprinted' in 1609 (Edmondson / Wells 4). Some critics were led to conclude their research with triumphant statements such as 'Shakespeare's Sonnets. The Problems solved', a title employed by A. L. Rowse in 1964. Rowse claims to have spotted the identity of the young man, the dark lady, the rival poet, as well as of 'W. H.'. His edition of the sonnets also includes a chapter called 'The Story: its Outlines' (24). Other critics have been focussing less on a coherent story with identifiable characters. In their analysis, they often take a purely immanent stance and are more concerned with how the poet, the speaking voice of the sonnets, establishes an identity, a private subjectivity and sensibility and in the course of his amorous encounters engages in a struggle to keep them afloat. I want to argue along the lines of those researchers who put the previously rather central issues of homosocial desire and Platonic and Petrarchan love into the lager context of what Stephen Greenblatt calls the 'self-fashioning' of the Renaissance individual (1). He points out that 'the power to impose a shape' upon oneself or another person is a major issue in the English Renaissance, the age of 'the formation of identity' (1 / 6). According to Colin Morris, there had been distinctions between 'types and individual representation' as early as 1020 (33 / 65), but A. J. Piesse states that 'self-interrogation' beyond a religious context began to loom only at the beginning of the sixteenth century (634). In the 80s, Stephen Greenblatt and Catherine Belsey stressed that 'any formulation of identity must be seen in the light of cultural context, that any exposition of self is a manifestation of a series of options, rather than something intrinsically different from anything else' (Piesse 635). In his work Sources of the Self of 1989, Charles Taylor differentiates along the lines of Plato and Aristotle between the importance of context and interior self for the individual (Ibid 635).

More books from GRIN Publishing

Cover of the book New novels for young readers in/of the 1980s - Narrative strategies and presentation of the novel's world by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book A comparative discussion on the translation of texts of different genres by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book The Managing Diversity program of the Deutsche Bank by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Tekrum Marketing Plan for Malaysia by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Language vs. Music? Exploring Music's Links to Language by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book The British Empire and its colonial legacy by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Comparative analysis of political systems of Lebanon and Switzerland by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Mind of an entrepreneur by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Mughal Architecture by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Verweildauermanagement - Eine Chance der Pflege? by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Discuss ways in which representations of non English characters are used to define Englishness in any two or three texts. by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Analysis of Marketing Environment of Virgin Australia by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Freud and the Polymorphous Perverse by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Sexual Suspects - Influences of the Sexual Liberation on Lust, Sexuality and Family in John Irving's 'The World According to Garp' by Anne Thoma
Cover of the book Recurring Images of Women in Oscar Wilde's Comedies by Anne Thoma
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy