Society and History in English Renaissance Verse - Softcover

`The combination of critical, historical, and theoretical discussi on in admirably lucid and unpretentious English is unusual and stimulating.' The Year's Work in English Studies The study of literature and the study of history have conventionally occupied different academic arenas. Professor Martines sets out to heal this breach in 'Society and History in English Renaissance Verse' by alerting historians to the potential of poetry as a key to understanding the social world of the English Renaissance. Arguing that one of the voices heard in poetry is that of social experience, the author paves the way for a coming together of the disciplines of history and literature in a new, historicist literary criticism. Arguing that literature can never be fully appreciated in an 'aesthetic' vacuum, Professor Martines displays the numerous vital ways in which Renaissance social history inform the literature of the period and how that writing can be read as a valuable social document. This book is now published in paperback for the first time. Students and scholars of English literature, history and Renaissance studies.