The Poetics of Personification

by James J. Paxson

Overview

Literary personification has long been taken for granted as an important aspect of Western narrative; Paul de Man had given it prominence as "the master trope of poetic discourse." James Paxson here offers a critical and theoretical appraisal of personification in the light of developments in poststructuralist thought. He reassesses early theories and examines the allegorical texts of Prudentius, Chaucer, Langland and Spenser to show how personification works as a complex artistic tool for revealing and advertising the problems and limits inherent in poetic or verbal creation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521445399
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/25/1994
Series:	Literature, Culture, Theory , #6
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.59(w) x 8.82(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. A history of personification theory; 2. Towards a taxonomy of tropes; 3. Narrative level, personification, and character ontology in Prudentius' Psychomachia; 4. A phenomenology of personification; 5. Personification, dreams, and narrative structure in Piers Plowman B; 6. Narrating the personification of personification in The Faerie Queene; Conclusion; Taxonomy II and future directions in personification theory; Notes; Works cited; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...I am delighted to have read and to suggest you read The Poetics of Personification, by James J. Paxson." Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance

"Throughout he demonstrates an exhilarating rigor of argumentation based on a breadth of reading that I find rare in current theoretical writing....I think it is to his credit that he can argue as clearly and forcefully as he does in a field so dense with conceptual and verbal obstacles and tangles." R.A. Shoaf, Style

"...a brave attempt to 'rehabilitate' this pervasive trope in the light of post-structuralist literary theory." Craig R. Davis, Speculum

"...no reader thinking about personification in the Renaissance can afford to ignore Paxson's work." Studies in English Literature

"Paxson concedes the ahistoricizing tendencies of his poetics in his final chapter, which contains a short, provocative meditation on some of the questions one might ask about the cultural contexts from which the texts that make extensive use of personification arise....Paxson's close readings of particular allegorical texts are always interesting." Clare Kinney, Studies in the Age of Chaucer

From the Publisher