Contemporary criticism of Donne has tended to ignore the historical culture and ideology that conditioned his writings, reinforcing the traditionally accepted model of the poet as a humanist of ethical, cultural and political individualism. In this title, first published in 1986, Thomas Docherty challenges this with a more rigorously theoretical reading of Donne, particularly in relation to the specific culture of the late Renaissance in Europe. Docherty locates Donne’s poetry at the crux of the various scientific, legal, domestic and rhetorical discourses that surrounded and informed it. With a broadly post-structuralist approach, this reissue will benefit literature students with an interest in the wider study and context of John Donne’s work.

Provides a new appreciation of John Donne through the lens of Walter Benjamin's critical theory of baroque allegory.

Twentieth-Century Fantasists is a collection of essays which examine the way in which fantasy literature functions as cultural and social criticism. Essays on Tolkien, Le Guin, Angela Carter, H.G. Wells and C.S. Lewis are included: and also works by William Burroughs, Ford Madox Ford, and Salman Rushdie are discussed. The book surveys the social and cultural changes of the twentieth century as reflected in the works of fantasy writers.