Curiosities and texts : the culture of collecting in early modern England / Marjorie Swann.

Main entry:

Swann, Marjorie (Marjorie E.)

Title & Author:

Curiosities and texts : the culture of collecting in early modern England / Marjorie Swann.

Publication:

Description:

280 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Series:

Material texts

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-271) and index.
1. Cultures of Collecting in Early Modern England -- 2. Sons of Science: Natural History and Collecting -- 3. The Countryside as Collection: Chorography, Antiquarianism, and the Politics of Landscape -- 4. The Author as Collector: Jonson, Herrick, and Textual Self-Fashioning -- Epilogue: An Ornament to the Nation.
Current Copyright Fee: GBP3.20 0.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

"In Curiosities and Texts, Marjorie Swann examines the imperatives behind the craze for collecting physical objects and discusses its relationship to the literary culture of the period. Through a wide-ranging series of case studies, she addresses two important questions: How was the collection, which was understood as a form of cultural capital, appropriated in early modern England to construct new social selves and modes of subjectivity? And how did literary texts - both as material objects and as vehicles of representation - participate in the process of negotiating the cultural significance of collectors and collecting?
For Swann, such superficially disparate artifacts as a gentleman's prized "african charm made out of teeth," the narrative catalogs of English landscape features that begin to appear in the Tudor and Stuart periods, and the famous 1616 folio edition of Ben Jonson, in which a living author for the first time issued his own collected "Works," can be profitably viewed as parts of a single cultural dynamic. Constructing her argument with a balance of detail and insight, Swann sheds new light on material culture's relationship to literature, social authority, and personal identity."--Jacket

Resources:
Book review (H-Net)

ISBN:

0812236106 (acid-free paper)
9780812236101 (acid-free paper)

Subject:

Collectors and collecting England History 17th century.
English literature Early modern, 1500-1700 History and criticism.
Curiosities and wonders England History 17th century.
Natural history England History 17th century.
Antiquarians Great Britain Biography.
Antiquarians England History 17th century.
Collections Angleterre Histoire 17e siècle.
Littérature anglaise 17e siècle Histoire et critique.
Curiosités et merveilles Angleterre Histoire 17e siècle.
Sciences naturelles Angleterre Histoire 17e siècle.
Spécialistes d'histoire ancienne Angleterre Histoire 17e siècle.
Spécialistes d'histoire ancienne Grande-Bretagne Biographies.
Antiquarians.
Civilization.
Collectors and collecting.
Curiosities and wonders.
English literature Early modern.
Natural history.
Verzamelingen.
Curiosa.
Curiosities and wonders England.
Natural history England.
Antiquarians England.
England Civilization 17th century.
Angleterre Civilisation 17e siècle.
England.
Great Britain.

Form/genre:

collective biographies.
Biographies.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
History.

Added entries:

Material texts.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 217547
Call No.: DA380 .S9 2001
Status: Available

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