Ingo Berensmeyer analyzes the functional and material conditions of literary culture in England between 1630 and 1700. In a series of case studies he demonstrates how experiences of contingency lead to a fundamental realignment of literary effects. In the process, a new cultural configuration emerges, affecting a wide array of social practices and institutions from poetry to politics and from epistemology to civility. The book thus offers a timely reassessment of English neoclassicism, the much neglected period between Shakespeare and the novel.

Autorentext

Ingo Berensmeyer, Universität Siegen.

Zusammenfassung

"Berensmeyers Arbeit ist eine sehr lesenswerte Studie, die in ihrer konzeptionellen Anlage dazu angetan ist, weitere Forschungen in diesem Bereich wertvolle Anregungen zu vermitteln."
Till Kinzel in: Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift 1/2010

"This study gives interesting insight into a hitherto neglected field of literary culture. It offers a convincing investigation of the major developments of contingency, particularly in the second half of the 17th century."
Arno Löffler in: Anglistik 20.2/2009