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The Resource Tropologies : ethics and invention in England, c.1350-1600, Ryan McDermott

Tropologies : ethics and invention in England, c.1350-1600, Ryan McDermott

Creator
Author
Summary
"Tropologies is the first book-length study to elaborate the medieval and early modern theory of the tropological, or moral, sense of scripture. Ryan McDermott argues that tropology is not only a way to interpret the Bible but also a theory of literary and ethical invention. The "tropological imperative" demands that words be turned into works--books as well as deeds. Beginning with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great, then treating monuments of exegesis such as the Glossa ordinaria and Nicholas of Lyra, as well as theorists including Thomas Aquinas, Erasmus, Martin Luther, and others, Tropologies reveals the unwritten history of a major hermeneutical theory and inventive practice. Late medieval and early Reformation writers adapted tropological theory to invent new biblical poetry and drama that would invite readers to participate in salvation history by inventing their own new works. Tropologies reinterprets a wide range of medieval and early modern texts and performances--including the Patience-Poet, Piers Plowman, Chaucer, the York and Coventry cycle plays, and the literary circles of the reformist King Edward VI--to argue that "tropological invention" provided a robust alternative to rhetorical theories of literary production. In this groundbreaking revision of literary history, the Bible and biblical hermeneutics, commonly understood as sources of tumultuous discord, turn out to provide principles of continuity and mutuality across the Reformation's temporal and confessional rifts. Each chapter pursues an argument about poetic and dramatic form, linking questions of style and aesthetics to exegetical theory and theology. Because Tropologies attends to the flux of exegetical theory and practice across a watershed period of intellectual history, it is able to register subtle shifts in literary production, fine-tuning our sense of how literature and religion mutually and dynamically informed and reformed each other. "This is an original book. It draws confidently on a wide range of medieval critical and scholarly work, as well as on a cogent body of contemporary theory and theology. It not only moves easily and eloquently between the fourteenth and the sixteenth centuries but also delves back into the 'tropological' Christian thought of the previous thousand years."--Nicolette Zeeman, University of Cambridge"--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource
Contents
  • Cover; TROPOLOGIES; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Illustrations ; Acknowledgments ; Introduction ; 1 Tropological Theory ; 2 How to Invent History: Patience, the Glossa ordinaria, and the Ethics of the Literal Sense ; 3 "Beatus qui verba vertit in opera": Langland's Ethical Invention
  • 4 Practices of Satisfaction and Piers Plowman's Dynamic Middle 5 Tropology Reformed: Scripture, Salvation, Drama ; 6 Mirror of Scripture: Ethics and Anagogy in the York Doomsday Pageant ; Conclusion ; Bibliography ; Index
Isbn
9780268087050
Instance
Label
Tropologies : ethics and invention in England, c.1350-1600
Title
Tropologies
Title remainder
ethics and invention in England, c.1350-1600
Statement of responsibility
Ryan McDermott
Creator
Author
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"Tropologies is the first book-length study to elaborate the medieval and early modern theory of the tropological, or moral, sense of scripture. Ryan McDermott argues that tropology is not only a way to interpret the Bible but also a theory of literary and ethical invention. The "tropological imperative" demands that words be turned into works--books as well as deeds. Beginning with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great, then treating monuments of exegesis such as the Glossa ordinaria and Nicholas of Lyra, as well as theorists including Thomas Aquinas, Erasmus, Martin Luther, and others, Tropologies reveals the unwritten history of a major hermeneutical theory and inventive practice. Late medieval and early Reformation writers adapted tropological theory to invent new biblical poetry and drama that would invite readers to participate in salvation history by inventing their own new works. Tropologies reinterprets a wide range of medieval and early modern texts and performances--including the Patience-Poet, Piers Plowman, Chaucer, the York and Coventry cycle plays, and the literary circles of the reformist King Edward VI--to argue that "tropological invention" provided a robust alternative to rhetorical theories of literary production. In this groundbreaking revision of literary history, the Bible and biblical hermeneutics, commonly understood as sources of tumultuous discord, turn out to provide principles of continuity and mutuality across the Reformation's temporal and confessional rifts. Each chapter pursues an argument about poetic and dramatic form, linking questions of style and aesthetics to exegetical theory and theology. Because Tropologies attends to the flux of exegetical theory and practice across a watershed period of intellectual history, it is able to register subtle shifts in literary production, fine-tuning our sense of how literature and religion mutually and dynamically informed and reformed each other. "This is an original book. It draws confidently on a wide range of medieval critical and scholarly work, as well as on a cogent body of contemporary theory and theology. It not only moves easily and eloquently between the fourteenth and the sixteenth centuries but also delves back into the 'tropological' Christian thought of the previous thousand years."--Nicolette Zeeman, University of Cambridge"--
Member of
Assigning source
Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
N$T
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1978-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
McDermott, Ryan
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
Series statement
Reformations, medieval and early modern
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • English literature
  • English literature
  • Bible and literature
  • Ethics in literature
  • Religion and literature
  • LITERARY CRITICISM
  • LITERARY CRITICISM
  • Bible and literature
  • English literature
  • English literature
  • Ethics in literature
  • Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
  • Literature
  • Religion and literature
  • Englisch
  • Ethik
  • Exegese
  • Literatur
  • Medelengelsk litteratur
  • Bibeln i litteraturen
  • Religion och litteratur
  • Bibeln
Label
Tropologies : ethics and invention in England, c.1350-1600, Ryan McDermott
Instantiates
Publication
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Cover; TROPOLOGIES; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Illustrations ; Acknowledgments ; Introduction ; 1 Tropological Theory ; 2 How to Invent History: Patience, the Glossa ordinaria, and the Ethics of the Literal Sense ; 3 "Beatus qui verba vertit in opera": Langland's Ethical Invention
  • 4 Practices of Satisfaction and Piers Plowman's Dynamic Middle 5 Tropology Reformed: Scripture, Salvation, Drama ; 6 Mirror of Scripture: Ethics and Anagogy in the York Doomsday Pageant ; Conclusion ; Bibliography ; Index
Control code
ocn946157972
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780268087050
Lccn
2016004189
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Note
JSTOR
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
22573/ctvpgkchn
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)946157972
Label
Tropologies : ethics and invention in England, c.1350-1600, Ryan McDermott
Publication
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Cover; TROPOLOGIES; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Illustrations ; Acknowledgments ; Introduction ; 1 Tropological Theory ; 2 How to Invent History: Patience, the Glossa ordinaria, and the Ethics of the Literal Sense ; 3 "Beatus qui verba vertit in opera": Langland's Ethical Invention
  • 4 Practices of Satisfaction and Piers Plowman's Dynamic Middle 5 Tropology Reformed: Scripture, Salvation, Drama ; 6 Mirror of Scripture: Ethics and Anagogy in the York Doomsday Pageant ; Conclusion ; Bibliography ; Index
Control code
ocn946157972
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780268087050
Lccn
2016004189
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Note
JSTOR
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
22573/ctvpgkchn
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)946157972

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