Edinburgh University Press Edmund Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene': A Reading Guide (Reading Guides to Long Poems)

This Reading Guide to Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene' offers an innovative and exciting introduction to the study of this complex poem. The Guide will be attractive to new readers coming to the poem for the first time, as well as to those teaching it in Universities. Through a representative selection of material from the poem, Andrew Zurcher provides skills and interpretative strategies for responding to its key themes. Readers will encounter a range of fresh approaches, relevant contexts and intertexts, whilst the section on Teaching The Text provides innovative strategies for engaging students with the poem. An indispensable resource, recommended as essential reading. Key Features * A clear and accessible introduction to Spenser's poem for undergraduates and graduates * Fully contextualised and annotated sections of the poem * Exploration of key themes: gender and sexuality; allegory and history; pageant and form * Innovative teaching suggestions * Advice and guidance for further reading From the Inside Flap Reading Guides to Long Poems Series Editors: Isobel Armstrong & Sally Bushell The series enables readers to re-engage with the long poem as a vital form. Volumes provide generous extracts, or in some cases complete poems, from significant works combined with a reading guide and teaching tips from enthusiastic lecturers who have taught the poem. Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene A Reading Guide Andrew Zurcher Introduces a Renaissance masterpiece to a modern audience This Guide will help new readers to understand and enjoy The Faerie Queene, drawing attention to its various ironies, its self-reflexive construction, its visual emphasis and the timeless ethical, political, and literary questions that it asks of all of us. The book includes key selections from the poem (each accompanied by a headnote, commentary and glosses), historical and critical discussions, teaching and learning plans and a guide to further resources in electronic and print media. Key Features * Contains substantial selections from The Faerie Queene * Provides an integrated introduction to Spenser's life, the intellectual and historical context of his writing and the poem's critical reception * Includes a range of suggestions for teaching and learning about the poem, both in formal seminars and through independent study * Contains a bibliography of further resources, including a list of editions, a list of key critical studies of the poem and a selection of useful websites Andrew Zurcher is a Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, where he teaches English literature. He is the author of Spenser's Legal Language: Law and Poetry in Early Modern England (2007) and the co-editor of Edmund Spenser, Selected Letters and Other Papers (2009). He is one of the General Editors of the forthcoming Oxford University Press edition of Spenser's Collected Works. From the Back Cover Reading Guides to Long Poems Series Editors: Isobel Armstrong & Sally Bushell The series enables readers to re-engage with the long poem as a vital form. Volumes provide generous extracts, or in some cases complete poems, from significant works combined with a reading guide and teaching tips from enthusiastic lecturers who have taught the poem. Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: A Reading Guide Andrew Zurcher Introduces a Renaissance masterpiece to a modern audience This Guide will help new readers to understand and enjoy The Faerie Queene, drawing attention to its various ironies, its self-reflexive construction, its visual emphasis and the timeless ethical, political, and literary questions that it asks of all of us. The book includes key selections from the poem (each accompanied by a headnote, commentary and glosses), historical and critical discussions, teaching and learning plans and a guide to further resources in electronic and print media. Key Features * Contains substantial selections from The Faerie Queene * Provides an integrated introduction to Spenser