The mutable glass : mirror-imagery in titles and texts of the Middle Ages and the English Renaissance

Author:

Grabes, Herbert

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Imprint:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1982

Subject:

English literature - Middle English, 1100-1500 - History and criticism
English literature - Early modern, 1500-1700 - History and criticism
Civilization, Medieval, in literature
Mirrors in literature
Renaissance - England
Figures of speech
Titles of books - England
Mirrors in art
Metaphor

ISBN:

9780521222037 and 0521222036

Description:

xvi, 414 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Notes:

Translation of: Speculum, mirror, und looking-glass

Bibliographic Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 400-414)

Contents:

Introduction. The fascination of the mirror: selection of a central metaphor ; Convention and originality: the literary use of the mirror ; Identity and change: the verbal fixation of the mirror ; Time and place: the mirror-age in English and Continental literature ; From speculum title to central metaphor: the plan of the book -- Part I. The mirror as title-metaphor. History of the mirror-title in England: Early titles and the situation regarding sources ; Mirror-titles before 1500 ; Mirror-titles in England, 1500-1700 -- A typology of works bearing mirror-titles: The classificatory basis ; Factually informative mirrors ; The encyclopaedic mirror ; The comprehensive mirrors of the compendia ; Mirrors of specific branches of knowledge ; Examplary texts bearing mirror-titles: The mirror of positive models ; Virtues and vices: examplary and admonitory mirrors ; Admonitory and unmasking mirrors: the deterrent image ; The prognostic mirror ; Fantastic mirrors -- Mirror conventions in literature and art. The multiplicity of mirrors: The 'real' mirror ; The metaphorical mirror ; The qualities and deficiencies of the mirror ; The image in the mirror ; The mirror's influence on the beholder ; Users and bearers of the mirror -- Part III. Originality: general conclusions. The concept of originality: New aspects of the mirror ; New combinations of conventions ; New aspects in new combinations ; New functions in individual contexts: Shakespeare's mirrors -- The historical dimension of metaphor, aesthetics and ideas: the age of the mirror: The power of convention: the mirror's potential ; Delight in correspondences: the mirror and baroque sensibility ; 'Mirror' or 'anatomy': the world-picture and the choice of metaphor -- Appendix: a synoptic listing of mirror-titles -- Section A: Mirror-titles to 1500 -- Section B: Mirror-titles in England, 1500-1700 -- Notes -- Indexical bibliography of primary references -- General bibliography

Summary:

This 1982 book was the first major and comprehensive survey of mirror-imagery to be found in medieval book-titles and English literature from the thirteenth to the end of the seventeenth century. Working within the tradition of the historical study of metaphor as developed by E. R. Curtius, Professor Grabes not only traces the shifting historical usages of the mirror (as the metaphor's 'vehicle') but also studies the metaphor's structural function in individual works. At the same time, the author addresses himself to the aesthetic problem of originality in literature, and, by investigating the function of a metaphor central to literature over a long period of time, he reveals the interplay between cultural history, the changing attitude towards life and the world, and literary imagination. It represents a substantial contribution to the history of ideas and to the study of iconography, which, by providing a systematic and historical contextualisation of the many varied metaphorical senses of the mirror, will be of particular value to art and literary historians, and cultural philosophers

Collection:

BGC Monograph Stacks

Call Number:

PR275.M5 G713 1982

Available

c.1