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A Poetics of the natural: sensation, decorum, and bodily appeal in P uttenham's Art of E nglish Poesy
Author(s) -
Wiseman Rebecca
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
renaissance studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1477-4658
pISSN - 0269-1213
DOI - 10.1111/rest.12005
Subject(s) - decorum , poetics , poetry , natural (archaeology) , literature , art , appeal , ideal (ethics) , flourishing , sublime , aesthetics , philosophy , history , psychology , epistemology , law , social psychology , archaeology , political science
This article addresses courtier‐poet P uttenham's sprawling 1589 treatise on E nglish poetics, focusing especially on one of the text's central tensions: the relationship between poetry as constructed commodity and the receptive body as natural, sensual, universal in its responses and affinities. I suggest that P uttenham's treatise is not merely a guide for poetic composition but also a sustained exploration of what it means to be a hearer and reader of poetry. The Art of E nglish Poesy is as interested in theorizing the physiological and social dimensions of the poetic encounter as it is in offering a set of instructions to aspiring courtier‐poets. Puttenham analyses this encounter in terms of an aesthetic ideal of proportionate composition and response; as a partnership flourishing under the conditions of a universal natural order; and as a crucial social tool, essential to decorum and courtly success. Yet Puttenham's central claim is for the supremacy of the receptive body as the ultimate arbiter of poetic quality.