ABSTRACT
Breaking new ground by considering productions of popular culture from above, rather than from below, this book draws on theorists of cultural studies, such as Pierre Bourdieu, Roger Chartier and John Fiske to synthesize work from disparate fields and present new readings of well-known literary works.
Using the literature of Shakespeare, Spenser and Jonson, Mary Ellen Lamb investigates the social narratives of several social groups – an urban, middling group; an elite at the court of James; and an aristocratic faction from the countryside. She states that under the pressure of increasing economic stratification, these social fractions created cultural identities to distinguish themselves from each other – particularly from lower status groups. Focusing on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream and Merry Wives of Windsor, Spenser's Faerie Queene, and Jonson's Masque of Oberon, she explores the ways in which early modern literature formed a particularly productive site of contest for deep social changes, and how these changes in turn, played a large role in shaping some of the most well-known works of the period.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |23 pages
1 Producing popular cultures
part |64 pages
Part I Fairies, old wives' tales, and hobby-horses
chapter |16 pages
2 Taken by the fairies
chapter |18 pages
3 Old wives' tales
chapter |26 pages
4 Hobby-horses and fellow travelers
part |71 pages
Part II William Shakespeare
part |33 pages
Part III Edmund Spenser
part |34 pages
Part IV Ben Jonson