The essay focuses on Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, chosen as a case study and point of reference. The critical analysis of this short poem throws light on a series of elements regarding not only poetry and poetic diction, but the entire cultural context of the last decade of the sixteenth century. What emerges from the close reading of the text is a faithful, albeit disquieting picture of the times. The poem itself, even though respectful and, in a way, subservient to the mythological and learned style so much in fashion in the period, distinguishes itself from similar poetic compositions, which were pointing, in that period, towards what has been definided an “orgy of the senses”. The study also demonstrates that in the period straddling two centuries, and covering the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, it is possible to individuate a drastic change of perceptiveness which would fully come to the fore only a few years later in Jacobean theatre and in metaphysical poetry.
The Narrative Form of Desire: Some notes on Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis.
RIZZARDI, BIANCAMARIA
2008-01-01
Abstract
The essay focuses on Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, chosen as a case study and point of reference. The critical analysis of this short poem throws light on a series of elements regarding not only poetry and poetic diction, but the entire cultural context of the last decade of the sixteenth century. What emerges from the close reading of the text is a faithful, albeit disquieting picture of the times. The poem itself, even though respectful and, in a way, subservient to the mythological and learned style so much in fashion in the period, distinguishes itself from similar poetic compositions, which were pointing, in that period, towards what has been definided an “orgy of the senses”. The study also demonstrates that in the period straddling two centuries, and covering the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, it is possible to individuate a drastic change of perceptiveness which would fully come to the fore only a few years later in Jacobean theatre and in metaphysical poetry.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
