The English Baroque in Early Modern Literature - (Edinburgh Critical Studies in Renaissance Culture) by Robert Hudson Vincent (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first large-scale study of English baroque literature.

Book Synopsis

While the baroque remains a foundational concept for other European literary and aesthetic traditions, scholars have largely elided the word from British literary history. Instead of baroque, these critics prefer to use terms like metaphysical, Stuart, and Laudian--terms that emphasise England's primacy rather than its relations with the world. In response to these Anglocentric approaches, The English Baroque in Early Modern Literature shows how the baroque offers a better way to appreciate the importance of transnational and multilingual relations to the development of English letters.

Review Quotes

Deriving the baroque from Scholastic logic, this book establishes the creativity, scope and distinctiveness of the English baroque for both Protestant and Catholic writers working in multilingual and global contexts.--Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine

Beginning from a new account of the origin of the baroque in Scholastic logic, Vincent refreshes our understanding of how this suspiciously Continental mode makes its way in early modern English literature. There is a lively sense of aesthetic scandal throughout - the baroque has always been scandalous - and a coda on contemporary forms shows we are not done with its excesses yet.--Jeff Dolven, Princeton University