Time's Purpled Masquers: Stars and the Afterlife in Renaissance English Literature / Edition 1

by Alastair Fowler

Overview

Alastair Fowler's fascinating study explores the extraordinary prominence of astronomical imagery in Renaissance literature. He describes the forgotten Renaissance beliefs about stellification, an afterlife in the stars through metamorphosis into stellar or angelic substance. The new astronomy of Copernicus and Brahe, far from working against religious beliefs, encouraged hopes of access to the uncorrupted spheres. Fowler's many-faceted book scrutinizes these ideas—both sacred and scientific—as they manifested in literature, masques, architecture, and the pursuit of fame.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198183402
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/18/1996
Pages:	180
Product dimensions:	5.65(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.69(d)
Lexile:	1470L (what's this?)

About the Author

University of Virginia

Editorial Reviews

"...Fowler has served students of religion well. The transformations of social and symbolic systems during the period in question are multifaceted. Fowler has drawn attention to one more aspect of which students of religion may be unaware."—Sixteenth Century Journal

"...offers an elegant and striking examination of the old belief in an afterlife in the stars and a brief, rather tour de force survey of astronomical thinking in the Renaissance..."—Chronique

From the Publisher