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John Skelton and Poetic Authority: Defining the Liberty to Speak

Online ISBN:
9780191706301
Print ISBN:
9780199273607
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

John Skelton and Poetic Authority: Defining the Liberty to Speak

Jane Griffiths
Jane Griffiths
Fellow in English, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
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Published online:
1 January 2010
Published in print:
23 February 2006
Online ISBN:
9780191706301
Print ISBN:
9780199273607
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book is the first book-length study of Skelton for almost twenty years (including the only substantial study to date of Skelton's translation of the Bibliotheca Historica of Diodorus Siculus), and the first to trace the roots of his poetic theory to his practice as a writer and translator. It demonstrates that much of what has been found challenging in his work may be attributed to his attempt to reconcile existing views of the poet's role in society with discoveries about the writing process itself. The result is a highly idiosyncratic poetics that locates the poet's authority decisively within his own person, yet at the same time predicates his ‘liberty to speak’ upon the existence of an engaged, imaginative audience. Skelton is frequently treated as a maverick, but this book places his theory and practice firmly in the context of later sixteenth as well as 15th-century traditions. Focusing on his relations with both past and present readers, it reassesses his place in the English literary canon.

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