Tahir Wood <twood at uwc.ac.za> wrote:
"The idea that some 'genius' invented something like 'poetic subjectivity' is preposterous and I doubt whether anyone here would really support such a notion"
Nobody claimed it, either.
BobW
>>> 12/11/07 9:44 PM >>> From: "C. G. Estabrook" Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Shakespeare
I'm skeptical of the notion -- put forth by scholars as different as the late Joel Fineman and the prevenient Harold Bloom -- that S. was the inventor of poetic subjectivity or was the first to "portray interiority" -- or even that the Renaissance was.
The idea that some 'genius' invented something like 'poetic subjectivity' is preposterous and I doubt whether anyone here would really support such a notion. They might say though that S was the first master exponent of it or something. But the subjectivity that is at issue here developed over thousands of years. It can be seen already in Christianity, e.g. Saul's transformation of the road to Damascus etc., as well as in lyrical poetry, the chivalric romance, and all sorts of other literary developments. All the genius stuff becomes so ahistorical and stupefying. Tahir All Email originating from UWC is covered by disclaimer http://www.uwc.ac.za/portal/public/portal_services/disclaimer.htm ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk