A study of eroticism in English non-dramatic poetry 1580-1680.
Abstract
For a hundred years, between Marlowe's. translation of
Ovid's Amores in the 1580s and Rochester's death in 1680, a
current of erotic feeling flows through English amatory verse
which has as its source the Ovidian Art of Love. This Art
sees sexuality as an autonomous activity and it elaborates
amatory techniques and scenarios, described individually as
'topics', to enhance the mutual pleasure of both parties. Such
a view of sexual relations challenges the prevailing amatory
codes of courtly love and Christian monogamy and not infrequently
clashes with them.
This study traces the impact of the Art of Love upon all
the principal non-dramatic writers of the period with the exception of
Shakespeare, The Elizabethan appetite for the sensuous
and suggestive is shown to develop into the more calculated
sensualism of the Caroline court poets which in turn
evolves into a deliberate cultivation of predatory appetite
at the Restoration. With Rochester's death in 1680 begins a
period of erotic decline,, A concluding chapter charts the
eighteenth-century transformation of the Ovidian tradition into
sentimentalism, raillery and pornography.
Authors
Guinness, G.N.A.Collections
- Theses [3706]