Why Lyrics Last : : Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare's Sonnets / / Brian Boyd.
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 constra...
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Superior document: | Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter E-BOOK GESAMTPAKET / COMPLETE PACKAGE 2012 |
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Place / Publishing House: | Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2012] ©2012 |
Year of Publication: | 2012 |
Language: | English |
Online Access: | |
Physical Description: | 1 online resource |
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Other title: | 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 |
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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. |
Format: | Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. |
ISBN: | 9780674064843 9783110288995 9783110288902 9783110288896 9783110374889 9783110374919 9783110442205 9783110459517 9783110662566 |
DOI: | 10.4159/harvard.9780674064843 |
Access: | restricted access |
Hierarchical level: | Monograph |
Statement of Responsibility: | Brian Boyd. |