Classics, Medieval & Renaissance 2012 - University of Toronto ...

LITERATURE
The Persistence of Presence
Emblem and Ritual in Baroque Spain
Bradley J. Nelson
The Persistence of Presence analyses the relationship
between emblem books, containing combinations
of pictures and texts, and Spanish literature in the
early modern period.
Bradley J. Nelson argues that the emblem was a
primary indicator of the social and political functions
of diverse literary practices in early modern Spain,
from theatre to epic prose. In this detailed examination
of emblem books, sacred and secular theatre, and
Cervantes’ critique of baroque allegory in Los trabajos
de Persiles y Sigismunda, Nelson connects the early
history of emblematics with the drive towards cultural
and political hegemony in Counter-Reformation Spain.
Bradley J. Nelson is an associate professor and chair
in the Department of Classics, Modern Languages
and Linguistics at Concordia University.
‘Nelson’s approach constitutes an original contribution
to Spanish emblematics with its careful analysis and
thorough consideration of relevant theories.’
Claudia Mesa, Renaissance Quarterly
(University of Toronto Romance Series)
272 pp / 16 illustrations / 6 x 9 / 2010
Cloth 978-0-8020-9977-8 $55.00 (£38.99)
Celestina and the Ends of Desire
NEW
E. Michael Gerli
One of the most widely read and translated Spanish
works in sixteenth-century Europe was Fernando de
Rojas’s Celestina, a 1499 novel in dialogue about a
couple that faces heartbreak and tragedy after being
united by the titular brothel madam. In Celestina
and the Ends of Desire, E. Michael Gerli illustrates
how this work straddles the medieval and the modern
in its exploration of changing categories of human
desire – from the European courtly love tradition to
the interpretation of want as an insatiable, destructive
force. Gerli’s analysis draws on a wide range of Celestina
scholarship but is unique in its use of modern literary
and psychoanalytic theory to confront the problematic
links between literature and life.
E. Michael Gerli is Commonwealth Professor of
Hispanic and Early Modern Studies at the University
of Virginia.
‘Celestina and the Ends of Desire is a fascinating book,
bringing a completely fresh approach to Fernando de
Rojas’s canonical work. E. Michael Gerli’s rich and
enriching theoretical approach provides a brilliant
new understanding of the language and rhetoric of
desire.’
Jesús Rodríguez-Velasco, Columbia University
248 pp / 8 illustrations / 6 x 9 / 2011
Cloth 978-1-4426-4255-3 $55.00 (£38.99)
The Poetry of Place
Lyric, Landscape, and Ideology in Renaissance France
FRENCH
Louisa Mackenzie
The sixteenth century in France was marked by
religious warfare and shifting political and physical
landscapes. In the face of destructive environmental
change, lyric poets in Renaissance France often
wrote about idealized physical spaces, reclaiming
the altered landscape to counteract the violence
and loss of the period. In The Poetry of Place, Louisa
Mackenzie reveals and analyses the cultural history
of French paysage through her study of lyric poetry
and its connections with landscape painting,
cartography, and land-use history. This unique
alliance of French Renaissance studies with cultural
geography and eco-criticism demonstrates that sixteenth-century
poetry created a powerful sense of
place which continues to inform national and regional
sentiment today.
Louisa Mackenzie is an assistant professor in the
Department of French and Italian at the University
of Washington.
‘The Poetry of Place is a stunning – and stunningly
original – book that makes an enormous contribution
to a number of related disciplines while opening up an
entirely new field of inquiry.’
Jeffrey N. Peters, University of Kentucky
304 pp / 6 x 9 / 2011
Cloth 978-1-4426-4239-3 $65.00 (£45.99)
utppublishing.com 31