Memorial University DAI: "Iudge if ought therein be amis" : the paradox of Edmund Spenser's Queen

advanced search

Digital Archives Initiative
Memorial University - Electronic Theses and Dissertations 4

menu off

add document to favorites : add page to favorites : reference url

back to results : previous : next

Search this object:

0 hit(s) :: previous hit : next hit

View:

previous page : next page

Document Description

Title	"Iudge if ought therein be amis" : the paradox of Edmund Spenser's Queen
Author	Colbert, Carolyn M., 1966-
Description	Thesis (M. A.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. English
Date	1998
Pagination	134 leaves
Subject	Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599--Faerie queene; Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603--In literature;
Degree	M. A.
Degree Grantor	Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dept. of English
Discipline	English Language and Literature
Language	Eng
Notes	Bibliography: p. 130-134
Abstract	Queen Elizabeth I is a figure of immense complexity: a woman who manifested the power of a prince, who ruled over a society that invested all authority, except that related to the sovereign, in men, and who embraced a notion of personal chastity that included qualities alien to that chastity practiced by other women. Consequently, she became the locus of iconographic interpretation. One of her interpreters is Edmund Spenser. In The Faerie Queene, he responds to the complications inherent in the conflation of female and monarch. Although he is her subject, he also retains a power-to instruct, celebrate, and criticize-related to his literary vocation. He does praise Elizabeth, and the encomia in The Faerie Queene are easily recognizable. However, it is too facile to project only the complimentary images of the queen. This thesis considers how Spenser reacts to the contradictions and ambiguities arising from Elizabeth's anomalous and radical position. Furthermore, it analyzes how his queen, shadowed as Gloriana, Belphoebe, Britomart, and Amoret, among others, is a paradox: she is transmuted into allegorical figures who evoke expressions of celebration, as well as tension, hostility, and criticism.
Type	Text
Format	Image/jpeg; Application/pdf
Source	Paper copy kept in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University Libraries
Local Identifier	a1355621
Rights	The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission.
Collection	Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Scanning Status	Completed
PDF File	(16.44 MB) -- http://collections.mun.ca/PDFs/theses/Colbert_CarolynM.pdf
CONTENTdm file name	139817.cpd