ABSTRACT
In 1980 Stephen Greenblatt called for the development of a new “cultural poetics.”1 In responding to this call, literary critics have frequently emphasized the “cultural” and neglected the question of “poetics.” The project of this volume involves a return to a recognition of the mutual dependence of the two terms: each of the essays in the volume travels through poetics to the theory of culture. The volume’s contributors share a conviction that the close reading of Spenser can play a crucial role in developing a richer tool-kit for cultural analysis. To explain the roots of this conviction will require a few words about the history of Spenser criticism and its influence on anthropological thought.
