The Cambridge Companion to the Sonnet

by A. D. Cousins, Peter Howarth

Overview

Beginning with the early masters of the sonnet form, Dante and Petrarch, the Companion examines the reinvention of the sonnet across times and cultures, from Europe to America. In doing so, it considers sonnets as diverse as those by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, George Herbert and e. e. cummings. The chapters explore how we think of the sonnet as a ‘lyric' and what is involved in actually trying to write one. The book includes a lively discussion between three distinguished contemporary poets – Paul Muldoon, Jeff Hilson and Meg Tyler – on the experience of writing a sonnet, and a chapter which traces the sonnet's diffusion across manuscript, print, screen and the internet. A fresh and authoritative overview of this major poetic form, the Companion expertly guides the reader through the sonnet's history and development into the global multimedia phenomenon it is today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521735537
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/03/2011
Series:	Cambridge Companions to Literature
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

A. D. Cousins is Professor of English at Macquarie University.

Peter Howarth teaches in the English Department at Queen Mary, University of London.

Table of Contents

Introduction A. D. Cousins and Peter Howarth; 1. Contemporary poets and the sonnet: a trialogue Paul Muldoon, Jeff Hilson and Meg Tyler; 2. The sonnet and the lyric mode Heather Dubrow; 3. The sonnet, subjectivity, and gender Diana Henderson; 4. The English sonnet in manuscript, print and mass media Arthur F. Marotti and Marcelle Freiman; 5. European beginnings and transmissions: Dante, Petrarch, and the sonnet sequence William J. Kennedy; 6. Desire, discontent, parody: the love sonnet in early modern England Catherine Bates; 7. Shakespeare's sonnets A. D. Cousins; 8. Sacred desire, forms of belief: the religious sonnet in early modern Britain Helen Wilcox; 9. Survival and change: the sonnet from Milton to the Romantics R. S. White; 10. The Romantic sonnet Michael O'Neill; 11. The Victorian sonnet Matthew Campbell; 12. The modern sonnet Peter Howarth; 13. The contemporary sonnet Stephen Burt; Bibliography Marea Mitchell.

Editorial Reviews

"... The Cambridge Companion to the Sonnet bears the hallmarks of its series. While little here is new, the volume offers a passable introduction to current thinking about its subject, and there are spots of original thinking."
Recent Studies in the English Renaissance

"A comprehensive companion to the sonnet in English."
Professor Will Christie, Australian Book Review

From the Publisher