The Poetics of Ruins in Renaissance Literature (Verbal Arts: Studies in Poetics)

The Renaissance was the Ruin-naissance, the birth of the ruin as a distinct category of cultural discourse, one that inspired voluminous poetic production. For humanists, the ruin became the material sign that marked the rupture between themselves and classical antiquity. In the first full-length book to document this cultural phenomenon, Andrew Hui explains how the invention of the ruin propelled poets into creating works that were self-aware of their absorption of the past as well as their own survival in the future. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents List of Figures and Color Plates Introduction: A Japanese Friend Part: I 1. The Rebirth of Poetics 2. The Rebirth of Ruins Part: II 3. Petrarch’s Vestigia and the Presence of Absence 4. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and the Erotics of Fragments 5. Du Bellay’s Cendre and the Formless Signifier 6. Spenser’s Moniment and the Allegory of Ruins Epilogue: Fallen Castles and Summer Grass Acknowledgments Notes Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z Color plates Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Figures and Color Plates -- Introduction: A Japanese Friend -- Part I -- 1. The Rebirth of Poetics -- 2. The Rebirth of Ruins -- Part II -- 3. Petrarch's Vestigia and the Presence of Absence -- 4. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and the Erotics of Fragments -- 5. Du Bellay's Cendre and the Formless Signifier -- 6. Spenser's Moniment and the Allegory of Ruins -- Epilogue: Fallen Castles and Summer Grass -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index The book argues that the Renaissance was the Ruin-naissance, the birth of the ruin as category of discourse that inspired voluminous poetic production. By examining Petrarch, Du Bellay, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Spenser, and Shakespeare, Hui explains how writers used the ruin to think about their relationship to classical antiquity