Open AccessColliding Discourses: John Donne's "Obsequies to the Lord Harington" and the New Historicism
Author(s) -
Ann Hurley
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
renaissance and reformation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 2293-7374
pISSN - 0034-429X
DOI - 10.33137/rr.v30i3.11507
Subject(s) - poetry , ideology , new historicism , readability , historicism , variety (cybernetics) , aesthetics , literature , sociology , art , philosophy , law , linguistics , political science , politics , computer science , artificial intelligence
This essay seeks to develop new critical procedures to better serve works like John Donne's "Obsequies to the Lord Harington." It argues that Donne's "Obsequies" is more profitably approached by readings which de-emphasize the valorization of personality and presence which have so dominated Donne studies in the past. For example, by focusing on a variety of discourses, rather than a single personalized "voice," one discovers in this poem a richly complex fabric of cultural, economic and social ideologies. The poem is thus restored to readability and its cultural contexts recaptured for future discussion.