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Why Lyrics Last : Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare's Sonnets / / Brian Boyd.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, [2012]Copyright date: ©2012Description: 1 online resource (240 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674065642
  • 9780674064843
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 821/.3 23
LOC classification:
  • PR2848 .B68 2012
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Lyrics Unlinked -- 1. Poetry, Pattern, and Attention -- 2. Lyric and Sonnet -- 3. A First Shakespeare Sonnet -- From Sonnet to Sequence -- 4. Love -- 5. Love and Time -- Beyond Love -- 6. Status -- 7. Death -- Shake-speares Sonnets, 1609 -- 8. Lyric and Narrative -- Envoi -- Notes. Bibliography. Index -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: In Why Lyrics Last, the internationally acclaimed critic Brian Boyd turns an evolutionary lens on the subject of lyric verse. He finds that lyric making, though it presents no advantages for the species in terms of survival and reproduction, is "universal across cultures because it fits constraints of the human mind." An evolutionary perspective- especially when coupled with insights from aesthetics and literary history-has much to tell us about both verse and the lyrical impulse. Boyd places the writing of lyrical verse within the human disposition "to play with pattern," and in an extended example he uncovers the many patterns to be found within Shakespeare's Sonnets. Shakespeare's bid for readership is unlike that of any sonneteer before him: he deliberately avoids all narrative, choosing to maximize the openness of the lyric and demonstrating the power that verse can have when liberated of story. In eschewing narrative, Shakespeare plays freely with patterns of other kinds: words, images, sounds, structures; emotions and moods; argument and analogy; and natural rhythms, in daily, seasonal, and life cycles. In the originality of his stratagems, and in their sheer number and variety, both within and between sonnets, Shakespeare outdoes all competitors. A reading of the Sonnets informed by evolution is primed to attend to these complexities and better able to appreciate Shakespeare's remarkable gambit for immortal fame.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674064843

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Lyrics Unlinked -- 1. Poetry, Pattern, and Attention -- 2. Lyric and Sonnet -- 3. A First Shakespeare Sonnet -- From Sonnet to Sequence -- 4. Love -- 5. Love and Time -- Beyond Love -- 6. Status -- 7. Death -- Shake-speares Sonnets, 1609 -- 8. Lyric and Narrative -- Envoi -- Notes. Bibliography. Index -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

In Why Lyrics Last, the internationally acclaimed critic Brian Boyd turns an evolutionary lens on the subject of lyric verse. He finds that lyric making, though it presents no advantages for the species in terms of survival and reproduction, is "universal across cultures because it fits constraints of the human mind." An evolutionary perspective- especially when coupled with insights from aesthetics and literary history-has much to tell us about both verse and the lyrical impulse. Boyd places the writing of lyrical verse within the human disposition "to play with pattern," and in an extended example he uncovers the many patterns to be found within Shakespeare's Sonnets. Shakespeare's bid for readership is unlike that of any sonneteer before him: he deliberately avoids all narrative, choosing to maximize the openness of the lyric and demonstrating the power that verse can have when liberated of story. In eschewing narrative, Shakespeare plays freely with patterns of other kinds: words, images, sounds, structures; emotions and moods; argument and analogy; and natural rhythms, in daily, seasonal, and life cycles. In the originality of his stratagems, and in their sheer number and variety, both within and between sonnets, Shakespeare outdoes all competitors. A reading of the Sonnets informed by evolution is primed to attend to these complexities and better able to appreciate Shakespeare's remarkable gambit for immortal fame.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)