Evolution of Petrarchism in English Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/pkn.v47.i3.05Keywords:
English poetry, sixteenth century, literary tradition, Petrarchism, sonnet, Tottel’s MiscellanyAbstract
This article discusses the development of Petrarchism in English literature. Its aim is to analyze the emergence, development and main trends of the Petrarchan poetic movement in England. The research methodology is determined by a complex combination of biographical, historical-literary and comparative-historical methods of literary analysis. It was established that the beginning of English Petrarchism can be seen in G. Chaucer’s poem Troilus and Cressida. Its first victorious steps date from the 1530s and are associated with the names of T. Wyatt and H. Howard. It has been noted that, at first glance, there appears to be an almost fifty-year break in tradition in English Petrarchism after the 1540s. However, this impression proves to be misleading, as in the 1590s the first English Petrarchan texts published in the so-called Tottel’s Miscellany were reprinted again and again. The 1590s saw the second rise of English Petrarchism, which was linked to the unprecedented spread of the sonnet genre in English poetry. At the same time, it has been pointed out that the last Petrarchan sonnet sequences of the Elizabethan era lacked any originality and suffered from all sorts of shortcomings of undisguised superficial imitation. It is concluded that Petrarchism can be considered the main path of English poetry in the sixteenth century.
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