Captive Victors: Shakespeare's Narrative Poems and Sonnets

Heather Dubrow

Published by Cornell University Press 1987

Captive Victors

Shakespeare's Narrative Poems and Sonnets

Heather Dubrow

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501745720

Overview
Contents

About this book

Drawing both on the tenets of classical rhetoric and on contemporary critical theory, Heather Dubrow here offers a bold and persuasive reading of Shakespeare's nondramatic poems. She calls into question prevailing critical views of Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, and the sonnets and asserts that in these poems Shakespeare uses rhetoric with great subtlety and force to effect characterizations as rich in psychological and moral complexities as those found in the plays.

Author / Editor information

Heather Dubrow is Professor and Rev. John Boyd, SJ Chair of English at Fordham University. She is the author of The Challenges of Orpheus: Lyric Poetry and Early Modern England, Genre, and the book of poetry Forms and Hollows.

Reviews

This masterly study will occupy a central place in scholarship on Shakespeare's sonnets and his two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, for many years to come. Captive Victors does more than contribute to knowledge (though every page of it does so): it provides a new framework for looking at the early Shakespeare and for estimating the importance of Shakespeare's poems in his creative development. It is a splendid book, elegantly written, exhaustively researched, and carried through with a firm but engaging control of its arguments.

Clark Hulse, Department of English, University of Illinois, Chicago:

Captive Victors is an elegant, subtle, and humane exploration of a crucial aspect of Shakespeare and of literature generally: the ways in which rhetorical language creates and embodies character. Although Captive Victors has the length of a substantial book, it preserves the best qualities of an essay. Its organization is fluid and unmechanical, its tone is conversational and lucid, and it strives continuously to link the details of literary analysis to general concerns of human psychology and ethics.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	7
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
1. "Upon misprision growing": Venus and Adonis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2. "Full of forged lies": The Rape of Lucrece Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	80
3. "Conceit deceitful": The Sonnets Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
4. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	258
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 288
Keywords: Literary Studies; Poetry & Criticism

eBook

Published: May 15, 2019
ISBN: 9781501745720