Guest Editor's Preface

Abstract

GUEST EDITOR'S PREFACE For successivedecades Tudor literature has had to fightforitsplace on the university curriculum. Whilst as a field of academic enquiryithas continuedto enjoy lively attentionfrom practisingacademics, independentresearchers, and graduatestudents, itsfoothold on theundergraduatesyllabus(surely one of the most significant recruiting grounds)has remainedfarfromsecure. How could theperiod between thepublicationof the MorteD'Arthur and The Shepheardes Calender be accounted for? All too frequently theanswerwas thatitcould or shouldnot: timeand space in theacademic yearwere under ever-increasing pressure. And anyway, didn'tC. S. Lewis say thatthis was 'thedrab age', 'a period inwhich, forgood or ill,poetryhas littlerichnesseitherof sound or images. The goodwork isneat and temperate, thebad flatand dry. There is more bad thangood'?' The widespread investment across theuniversity sector inmodularization and semesterization onlyrenderedthesituationintheuniversity classroom more acute. Between theScylla of 'MedievalLiterature' and Charybdis of 'The Renaissance' survey courses,there was, well, theChristmasvacation. Skelton might scamperbehind and rubshoulders with the GreenKnight and the Wife of Bath.And in thesecondpart of theyear Wyattwas allowed tomake an appearance (alltoooftenas a foretaste ofDonnean poetics), withSurreylimping behind.And then, what aboutMore's Utopia 'but wasn't that writtenfirst in Latin?', a former colleagueenquired. More recently, ithas been increasingly apparent thatfamiliarschemesof periodizationand taxonomy are failingtohave theiraccustomedpurchase. In criticalstudies of theearly modern period, theproliferation of interest ingenre theory, politicalnarrativization, women'swriting, and theinfluence of classical translation, forexample,hasmeant thatthelater Elizabethans arenow seen to do businessinamuchmore vigorousfashion with thetextualremains of earlier decades. However, given our acute sensitivities to discontinuity, irony, and anxiety,itshouldnot come as a surprisethattherepositioning of sixteenth centurytextshas failed to produce a reassuringly evolutionary narrativeof culturaland literary developmentunder theTudors. The finalessays in this collection, by Anne Lake PrescottandColin Burrow,attend most particularly to theproblemssurrounding theconflictual natureof identity politicsin thefinal decades of thecentury, and indeed theirdiscussionsengage closelywith the C. S. Lewis, English Literature in theSixteenthCenturyExcludingDrama (Oxford: Clarendon Press, I954, repr. I959), p. 64 vi Guest Editor's Preface earlierstudiesinthis volume, which, intheir different ways,pointup thecultural crisesof interpretation beingnegotiatedbyearliergenerations ofTudorwriters. The collapse of thementalite of thedrab age in academe may also be witnessed intheever-increasing growth of academic research networks devoted to the whole spanof theearly modern period,and in the widespread currency of final-year options inundergraduatedegree courses that invitestudentsto attendtoquestionsof genre,gender, politicalcontroversy, and theory. Changing patterns in thepublishing industry and the revolutionin e-resourceshave enabled us tounpick thefamiliar narrative of thecanon in theuniversity class roomaswell as in thelibrary archive.Ithas been an enormouspleasure toedit this volumeand to work for a substantiallength of time with somany dedicated scholarsofTudor literature, from whom I have learnedsomuch. Iwish to take this opportunityto thankthecontributors fortheir continuing commitmentto this project. My gratitudeisalso expressedtotheYearbook ofEnglish Studies editor JohnBatchelorand editorialassistant Allyna Ward fortheir advice and encour agementthroughout thepreparationof this double volume. Mike Pincombe,as always,has been an invaluablesourceof supportand advice as thecollection evolved.Throughout itsperiod of gestation,the textualpreparationof this volumehas beenmeticulous andwas undertakenbyLindaJones; and Iwould likeonce again tovoicemy thankstoher.Last butbynomeans least, my thanks go to my family, Sian,Bronwen,andHuw.Without their continuing supportand understanding, thiscollection would nothave been possible. UNIVERSITY OFWALEs, BANGOR ANDREw HIscOCK The nextvolumesof theYearbook will be titled Literature andReligion, in2009. Correspondence relatedto theYearbook shouldbe addressed to: ProfessorJohn Batchelor Editor,Yearbook ofEnglish Studies School of English NewcastleUniversity Newcastle NEI 7RU e-mail:j.b.batchelor@ncl.ac.uk ...