The Pain of Reformation: Spenser, Vulnerability, and the Ethics of Masculinity

Contents

Contents List of Figures vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 p a r t i : t h e l e g e n d o f h o l i n e s s 1. Reading Bleeding Trees: The Poetics of Other People’s Pain 47 2. Spenser’s Dark Materials: Representation in the Shadow of Christ 75 p a r t i i : t h e l e g e n d o f t e m p e r a n c e 3. On Not Defending Poetry: Spenser, Suffering, and the Energy of Affect 107 4. Boy Toys and Liquid Joys: Pleasure and Power in the Bower of Bliss 129 p a r t i i i : t h e l e g e n d o f c h a s t i t y 5. Vulnerable Subjects: Amoret’s Agony, Britomart’s Battle for Chastity 163 6. Damaged Gods: Adonis and the Pain of Allegory 204 Conclusion 225 Notes 239 Index 275 ...