Skepticism and Memory in Shakespeare and Donne

Product Description This book fills a lacuna in the intellectual history of the seventeenth century by investigating the role that skepticism plays in the declining prestige of memory. It argues that Shakespeare and Donne revolutionize the art of memory, thanks to their skepticism, and thereby transform literary strategies like mimesis, exemplarity, and pastoral. Review Praise for Skepticism and Memory in Shakespeare and Donne'An elegantly conceived and probing study. Written with verve and clarity, this book takes up a thread of thinking in recent criticism about skeptical modalities in Renaissance literature, in particular, skepticism's formal modes and masks. Within the field defined by the interlocking themes of skepticism and memory, it places in dialogue the pair of Shakespeare and Donne - two central Renaissance authors very rarely studied together - and makes a strong contribution.'; Kenneth Gross, University of Rochester, USA, Author of Shylock is Shakespeare and Shakespeare's Noise'...Anita Gilman Sherman tackles this well-worn subject in fresh and innovative ways.' - Modern Philology About the Author Anita Gilman Sherman is Assistant Professor of Literature at American University in Washington, D. C. In addition to essays about Shakespeare and Donne, she has published work on Garcilaso de la Vega, Thomas Heywood, and Michel de Montaigne.