Pastoral and the Poetics of Self-Contradiction Theocritus to Marvell

Exploration of ways in which poets interrogate the contradictory relations inherent in pastoral as a genre.

Traditionally, critics of the English Renaissance have viewed pastoral as a static, idealizing genre, aimed at the recreation of an idyllic past. More recently, these idealizing humanist approaches have been forcefully challenged by studies written from historicist perspectives. In Pastoral and the Poetics of Self-Contradiction, first published in 1995, Judith Haber complicates the conventional opposition between humanist and historicist criticism by examining the ways in which pastoral poets themselves interrogate the contradictory relations inherent in their genre. Haber explores problems of representation, self-representation, and imitation in classical and Renaissance pastoral, focusing on texts by Theocritus, Virgil, Sidney and Marvell. Her approach revises current understanding of pastoral as a genre, and raises wider questions about the place of literature in society and the difficulties involved in constituting literary traditions.

Acknowledgements; Texts and abbreviations; Introduction: 'Remedies themselves complain': pastoral poetry, pastoral criticism; 1. Bringing it all back home: bucolic and heroic in Theocritus' Idylls; 2. Si numquam fallit imago: Virgil's revision of Theocritus; 3. Pastime and passion: the impasse in the Old Arcadia; 4. Complaints themselves remedy: Marvell's lyrics as problem and solution; Epilogue: farewell to pastoral: The Shepherd's Week; Notes; Works cited; Index.

Humanist and historicist views of pastoral as a genre are subject to challenge in this 1995 book. Judith Haber offers an alternative perspective by exploring ways in which pastoral poets themselves interrogate the contradictory relations inherent in their genre, an exploration which raises wider questions concerning the place of literature in society.