Blank Chance and the Undrawn Emblem

This essay uses Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (1596) and George Wither’s A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne (1635) to investigate the contingencies that fictions can harbor and the ethical demands of the cocreative reading practices they host. Wither’s Collection includes an innovati...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inRepresentations (Berkeley, Calif.) Vol. 167; no. 1; pp. 97 - 126
Main Author Barret, J K
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berkeley University of California Press Books Division 01.08.2024
Subjects
English literature
Epic literature
Ethics
Poetry
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:This essay uses Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (1596) and George Wither’s A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne (1635) to investigate the contingencies that fictions can harbor and the ethical demands of the cocreative reading practices they host. Wither’s Collection includes an innovative “lotterie” game that involves twenty-four poems that do not correspond to any emblem. I trace the uninstantiated possibilities enabled by the inclusion of these “blank chances” in light of early modern poetry’s developing interest in contingency.
ISSN:0734-6018
1533-855X
DOI:10.1525/rep.2024.167.4.97