Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader

The last two decades have transformed the field of Renaissance studies, and Reconceiving the Renaissance: A Critical Reader maps this difficult terrain. Attending to the breadth of fresh approaches, the volume offers a theoretical overview of current thinking about the period. Collecting in one volume the classic and cutting-edge statements which define early modern scholarship as it is now practised, this book is a one-stop indispensable resource for undergraduates and beginning postgraduates alike. Through a rich array of arguments by the world's leading experts, the Renaissance emerges wonderfully invigorated, while the suggestive shorter extracts, topical questions and engaged editorial introductions give students the wherewithal and encouragement to do some reconceiving themselves.

Table of Contents:
1: General Introduction: Reconceiving the Renaissance 2: Textuality 3: Histories 4: Appropriation 5: Identities 6: Materiality 7: Values

About the Author :
Ewan Fernie (born 1971) won the James Elliott prize for his 1994 first-class degree from the University of Edinburgh, where he also achieved the Lanfine Bursary in English, the Horsliehill-Scott Bursary in Philosophy and a number of other prizes. He is Lecturer in Shakespeare at Royal Holloway, University of London. Ramona Wray is Lecturer at the School of English, Queen's University, Belfast. She has published Women Writers of the Seventeenth Century (Northcote House, 2003) and has co-edited Shakespeare and Ireland: History, Politics, Culture (Macmillan, 1997) and Shakespeare, Film, Fin de Siecle (Macmillan, 2000). Mark Thornton Burnett is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen's University, Belfast, and Director of the Kenneth Branagh Archive. He is the author of Masters and Servants in English Renaissance Drama and Culture and Constructing 'Monsters' in Shakespearean Drama and Early Modern Culture, and the editor of Christopher Marlowe: The Complete Plays and Christopher Marlowe: The Complete Poems. Clare McManus is Lecturer in English at Queen's University, Belfast. Her research focuses on early modern European theatre and performance, and in particular on women's performance and cultural production. She is the author of Women on the Renaissance Stage: Anna of Denmark and Female Masquing in the Stuart Court (1590-1619). She is also editor of Women and Culture at the Courts of the Stuart Queens.

Review :
`A one-of-a-kind book will serve as an indispensable guide to students and teachers of Renaissance literature.' William Kerwin, University of Missouri-Columbia `An excellent resource...should be required reading for all serious students of Renaissance literature.' Andrew Murphy, University of St Andrews `Without doubt the most illuminating and comprehensive guide to Renaissance and early modern studies available anywhere today A signal achievement and one that will stand as a guide for many years to come.' Patricia Parker, Stanford University `remarkably succeeds in meeting the ambition of its title compellingly demonstrates how various and exciting contemporary scholarship is.' David Scott Kastan, Columbia University