Love and its critics : from the Song of Songs to Shakespeare and Milton's Eden

"This book is a history of love and the challenge love offers to the laws and customs of its times and places, as told through poetry from the Song of Songs to John Milton's Paradise Lost. It is also an account of the critical reception afforded to such literature, and the ways in which criticism has attempted to stifle this challenge. Bryson and Movsesian argue that the poetry they explore celebrates and reinvents the love the troubadour poets of the eleventh and twelfth centuries called fin'amor: love as an end in itself, mutual and freely chosen even in the face of social, religious, or political retribution. Neither eros nor agape, neither exclusively of the body, nor solely of the spirit, this love is a middle path. Alongside this tradition has grown a critical movement that employs a 'hermeneutics of suspicion', in Paul Ricoeur's phrase, to claim that passionate love poetry is not what it seems, and should be properly understood as worship of God, subordination to Empire, or an entanglement with the structures of language itself – in short, the very things it resists. The book engages with some of the seminal literature of the Western canon, including the Bible, the poetry of Ovid, and works by English authors such as William Shakespeare and John Donne, and with criticism that stretches from the earliest readings of the Song of Songs to contemporary academic literature. Lively and enjoyable in its style, it attempts to restore a sense of pleasure to the reading of poetry, and to puncture critical insistence that literature must be outwitted. It will be of value to professional, graduate, and advanced undergraduate scholars of literature, and to the educated general reader interested in treatments of love in poetry throughout history." Contents 7 Acknowledgements 10 A Note on Sources and Languages 11 1. Love and Authority: Love Poetry and its Critics 12 I. The Poetry of Love 12 II. Love’s Nemesis: Demands for Obedience 14 III. Love’s Critics: The Hermeneutics of Suspicion and the Authoritarian Approach to Criticism 21 IV. The Critics: Poetry Is About Poetry 34 V. The Critics: The Author Is Dead (or Merely Irrelevant) 40 2. Channeled, Reformulated, and Controlled: Love Poetry from the Song of Songs to Aeneas and Dido 48 I. Love Poetry and the Critics who Allegorize: The Song of Songs 48 II. Love Poetry and the Critics who Reduce: Ovid’s Amores and Ars Amatoria 68 III. Love or Obedience in Virgil: Aeneas and Dido 88 IV. Love or Obedience in Ovid: Aeneas, Dido, and the Critics who Dismiss 100 3. Love and its Absences in Late Latin and Greek Poetry 108 I. Love in the Poetry of Late Antiquity: Latin 108 II. Love in the Poetry of Late Antiquity: Greek 124 4. The Troubadours and Fin’amor: Love, Choice, and the Individual 132 I. Why “Courtly Love” Is Not Love 132 II. The Troubadours and their Critics 147 III. The Troubadours and Love 176 5. Fin’amor Castrated: Abelard, Heloise, and the Critics who Deny 206 6. The Albigensian Crusade and the Death of Fin’amor in Medieval French and English Poetry 226 I. The Death of Fin’amor: The Albigensian Crusade and its Aftermath 226 II. Post-Fin’amor French Poetry: The Roman de la Rose 249 III. Post-Fin’amor English Romance: Love of God and Country in Havelok the Dane and King Horn 286 IV. Post-Fin’amor English Poetry: Mocking “Courtly Love” in Chaucer—the Knight and the Miller 291 V. Post-Fin’amor English Poetry: Mocking “Auctoritee” in Chaucer—the Wife of Bath 297 7. The Ladder of Love in Italian Poetry and Prose, and the Reactions of the Sixteenth-Century Sonneteers 306 I. The Platonic Ladder of Love 306 II. Post-Fin’amor Italian Poetry: The Sicilian School to Dante and Petrarch 311 III. Post-Fin’amor Italian Prose: Il Libro del Cortegiano (The Book of the Courtier) 341 IV. The Sixteenth-Century: Post-Fin’amor Transitions in Petrarchan-Influenced Poetry 347 8. Shakespeare: The Return of Fin’amor 364 I. The Value of the Individual in the Sonnets 364 II. Shakespeare’s Plays: Children as Property 378 III. Love as Resistance: Silvia and Hermia 389 IV. Love as Resistance: Juliet and the Critics who Disdain 404 9. Love and its Costs in Seventeenth-Century Literature 432 I. Carpe Diem in Life and Marriage: John Donne and the Critics who Distance 433 II. The Lyricist of Carpe Diem: Robert Herrick and the Critics who Distort 456 10. Paradise Lost: Love in Eden, and the Critics who Obey 478 Epilogue. Belonging to Poetry: A Reparative Reading 512 Bibliography 524 Index 564 "This book is a history of love and the challenge love offers to the laws and customs of its times and places, as told through poetry from the Song of Songs to John Milton's Paradise Lost. It is also an account of the critical reception afforded to such literature, and the ways in which criticism has attempted to stifle this challenge. Bryson and Movsesian argue that the poetry they explore celebrates and reinvents the love the troubadour poets of the eleventh and twelfth centuries called fin'amor : love as an end in itself, mutual and freely chosen even in the face of social, religious, or political retribution. Neither eros nor agape, neither exclusively of the body, nor solely of the spirit, this love is a middle path. Alongside this tradition has grown a critical movement that employs a 'hermeneutics of suspicion', in Paul Ricoeur's phrase, to claim that passionate love poetry is not what it seems, and should be properly understood as worship of God, subordination to Empire, or an entanglement with the structures of language itself - in short, the very things it resists. The book engages with some of the seminal literature of the Western canon, including the Bible, the poetry of Ovid, and works by English authors such as William Shakespeare and John Donne, and with criticism that stretches from the earliest readings of the Song of Songs to contemporary academic literature. Lively and enjoyable in its style, it attempts to restore a sense of pleasure to the reading of poetry, and to puncture critical insistence that literature must be outwitted. It will be of value to professional, graduate, and advanced undergraduate scholars of literature, and to the educated general reader interested in treatments of love in poetry throughout history."--Résumé de l'éditeur "This book is a history of love and the challenge love offers to the laws and customs of its times and places, as told through poetry from the Song of Songs to John Milton's Paradise Lost. It is also an account of the critical reception afforded to such literature, and the ways in which criticism has attempted to stifle this challenge. Bryson and Movsesian argue that the poetry they explore celebrates and reinvents the love the troubadour poets of the eleventh and twelfth centuries called fin'amor: love as an end in itself, mutual and freely chosen even in the face of social, religious, or political retribution. Neither eros nor agape, neither exclusively of the body, nor solely of the spirit, this love is a middle path. Alongside this tradition has grown a critical movement that employs a 'hermeneutics of suspicion', in Paul Ricoeur's phrase, to claim that passionate love poetry is not what it seems, and should be properly understood as worship of God, subordination to Empire, or an entanglement with the structures of language itself - in short, the very things it resists. The book engages with some of the seminal literature of the Western canon, including the Bible, the poetry of Ovid, and works by English authors such as William Shakespeare and John Donne, and with criticism that stretches from the earliest readings of the Song of Songs to contemporary academic literature. Lively and enjoyable in its style, it attempts to restore a sense of pleasure to the reading of poetry, and to puncture critical insistence that literature must be outwitted. It will be of value to professional, graduate, and advanced undergraduate scholars of literature, and to the educated general reader interested in treatments of love in poetry throughout history."--Publisher's website This book is a history of love and the challenge love offers to the laws and customs of its times and places, as told through poetry from the __Song of Songs__ to John Milton’s __Paradise Lost__. It is also an account of the critical reception afforded to such literature, and the ways in which criticism has attempted to stifle this challenge. The book engages with some of the seminal literature of the Western canon, including the Bible, the poetry of Ovid, and works by English authors such as William Shakespeare and John Donne, and with criticism that stretches from the earliest readings of the __Song of Songs__ to contemporary academic literature. Lively and enjoyable in its style, it attempts to restore a sense of pleasure to the reading of poetry, and to puncture critical insistence that literature must be outwitted. Love And Authority: Love Poetry And Its Critics -- Channeled, Reformulated, And Controlled: Love Poetry From The Song Of Songs To Aeneas And Dido -- Love And Its Absences In Late Latin And Greek Poetry -- The Troubadours And Fin'amor: Love, Choice, And The Individual -- Fin'amor Castrated: Abelard, Heloise, And The Critics Who Deny -- The Albigensian Crusade And The Death Of Fin'amor In Medieval French And English Poetry -- The Ladder Of Love In Italian Poetry And Prose, And The Reactions Of The Sixteenth-century Sonneteers -- Shakespeare: The Return Of Fin'amor -- Love And Its Costs In Seventeenth-century Literature -- Paradise Lost: Love In Eden, And The Critics Who Obey. Michael Bryson And Arpi Movsesian. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 513-532 ) And Index.