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"Foolish men that prayse gin eke t'envy"
- Abstract:
- In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, scenes of armament and disarmament allegorize the way that idealized and degenerate forms of masculinity are forged. Armor, in Spenser, is less a physical than a psychological shield. Donned at the wrong time, the knights become cruel, untrustworthy, and apathetic. Removed at inappropriate junctures, they descend into lust, avarice, and gluttony. Spenser's epic models the self-fashioning by which gentleman could come to embody the harmony of Venus and Mars. Empedocles' principle of love and war--the idea that eros and strife must come together for the generation of life to occur--is central to Spenser's idea of exemplary masculinity as well as to his political and artistic vision of harmony. The epic models a paradigm of courtly masculinity that places a premium on intense emotional relationships between men, even as it divorces eros from the realms of martial honor and patriarchalism. Since Spenser's vision of self-fashioned masculinity depends upon his understanding of court culture and the woman presiding over it, I conclude my thesis by looking at the epic's critique of Elizabeth I's use of romantic tropes and erotic pageantry
Title: | "Foolish men that prayse gin eke t'envy": armes, armor, and eroticism in Spenser's The Faerie Queene. |
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Name(s): | Desimone, Noah Ryan, author. | |
Type of Resource: | text | |
Genre: |
Bibliography Text-txt Academic Theses. Criticism, Interpretation, Etc. Academic Theses. Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation. |
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Issuance: | monographic | |
Date Created: | 2021 | |
Other Date: | 2021. | |
Publisher: | University of West Florida, | |
Place of Publication: | [Pensacola, Florida] : | |
Physical Form: | electronic resource | |
Extent: | 1 online resource (vi, 42 leaves) | |
Language(s): | eng | |
Abstract: | In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, scenes of armament and disarmament allegorize the way that idealized and degenerate forms of masculinity are forged. Armor, in Spenser, is less a physical than a psychological shield. Donned at the wrong time, the knights become cruel, untrustworthy, and apathetic. Removed at inappropriate junctures, they descend into lust, avarice, and gluttony. Spenser's epic models the self-fashioning by which gentleman could come to embody the harmony of Venus and Mars. Empedocles' principle of love and war--the idea that eros and strife must come together for the generation of life to occur--is central to Spenser's idea of exemplary masculinity as well as to his political and artistic vision of harmony. The epic models a paradigm of courtly masculinity that places a premium on intense emotional relationships between men, even as it divorces eros from the realms of martial honor and patriarchalism. Since Spenser's vision of self-fashioned masculinity depends upon his understanding of court culture and the woman presiding over it, I conclude my thesis by looking at the epic's critique of Elizabeth I's use of romantic tropes and erotic pageantry | |
Identifier: | 1296388542 (oclc), WFE0000781 (IID) | |
Note(s): |
by Noah Ryan Desimone. Department of English, College of Arts and Social Sciences Thesis (M.A.) University of West Florida 2021 Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print. |
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Subject(s): |
Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 University of West Florida University of West Florida. Faerie queene (Spenser, Edmund) |
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Library Classification: | LD1807.F62k 2021 D475 | |
Persistent Link to This Record: | http://purl.flvc.org/uwf/fd/WFE0000781 | |
Use and Reproduction: | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/ | |
Host Institution: | UWF | |
Other Format: |
"Foolish men that prayse gin eke t'envy". (Print version :) (OCoLC)1296390011 |