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Spenser and the monomyth: Essays in interpretation
Abstract
The work subjects The Faerie Queene of Edmund Spenser to an archetypal mode of analysis that through its consistent application is intended to prove a reasonably reliable instrument for extracting a coherent meaning from that text. The approach selected, one that invokes a motif-driven, patterned analysis of the text, establishes the monomythic model of Joseph Campbell as a context for evaluating the heroic dimensions of the questing knights Redcrosse, Guyon, Britomart, and Calidore. The methodology further proposes to liberate Spenser from allegory--here defined as the assignment of abstract values to the figures of art in order to validate and facilitate ideological interpretations of that art. The study promotes the quest paradigm as a valid measure of characterization capable of generating interpretation across a wide spectrum of texts. The view of the study is that however much Spenser may have intended a particular, allegorical, reading, the text frequently invites a different response. The application of the monomythic model is undertaken with a revisionist's toleration for a received tradition of interpretation but a toleration seasoned with the determination to permit the quests to unfold in language not in spite of it. Accordingly, neither Redcrosse nor Guyon is viewed as partaking in a successful quest as such is defined by the extent to which the Knights' respective adventures conduct to the integration of disparate psychical impulses. Britomart and Calidore are seen as attaining a more certain psychological integration. Finally, the study suggests that Spenser--himself subjected to analysis following the model--abandons his ambitious self-appointed quest to complete The Faerie Queene in favor of a modestly successful completion of a surrogate quest to achieve personal and literary renown, a quest embodied in the Amoretti.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature
Recommended Citation
Quinn, Dennis William, "Spenser and the monomyth: Essays in interpretation" (1996). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9619427.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9619427