Renaissance Self-fashioning: From More to Shakespeare

by Stephen Greenblatt

Renaissance Self-Fashioning is a study of sixteenth-century life and literature that spawned a new era of scholarly inquiry. Stephen Greenblatt examines the structure of selfhood as evidenced in major literary figures of the English Renaissance—More, Tyndale, Wyatt, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare—and finds that in the early modern period new questions surrounding the nature of identity heavily influenced the literature of the era. Now a classic text in literary studies, Renaissance Self-Fashioning continues to be of interest to students of the Renaissance, English literature, and the new historicist tradition, and this new edition includes a preface by the author on the book's creation and influence.

"No one who has read [Greenblatt's] accounts of More, Tyndale, Wyatt, and others can fail to be moved, as well as enlightened, by an interpretive mode which is as humane and sympathetic as it is analytical. These portraits are poignantly, subtly, and minutely rendered in a beautifully lucid prose alive in every sentence to the ambivalences and complexities of its subjects."—Harry Berger Jr., University of California, Santa Cruz

Genres: History, Shakespeare, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Renaissance, Criticism, Art

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Stephen Greenblatt (Ph.D. Yale) is Cogan University Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University. Also General Editor of The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Eighth Edition, he is the author of nine books, including Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare; Hamlet in Purgatory; Practicing New Historicism; Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World; Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture; and The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. He has edited six collections of criticism, is the co-author (with Charles Mee) of a play, Cardenio, and is a founding coeditor of the journal Representations. He honors include the MLA's James Russell Lowell Prize, for Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England, the Distinguished Humanist Award from the Mellon Foundation, the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Vermont.

Stephen Jay Greenblatt is a Pulitzer Prize winning American literary critic, theorist and scholar.

Greenblatt is regarded by many as one of the founders of New Historicism, a set of critical practices that he often refers to as "cultural poetics"; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term. Greenblatt has written and edited numerous books and articles relevant to new historicism, the study of culture, Renaissance studies and Shakespeare studies and is considered to be an expert in these fields. He is also co-founder of the literary-cultural journal Representations, which often publishes articles by new historicists. His most popular work is Will in the World, a biography of Shakespeare that was on the New York Times Best Seller List for nine weeks.

Reviews

[Brodolomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ovo je moj treći Grinblat u životu i slušao sam njegovo predavanje u Narodnoj biblioteci pre desetak godina. To je književni proučavalac koji zna baš dobro da piše. Ova knjiga je iz 1980. Grinblat je još uvek akademski pisac, nije bestseler nonfiction autor humanistike kao poslednjih godina, ali da, sve je tu – vidi se i ovde da želi zanimljive stvari iz istorije i književnosti ostanu uzbudljive, a da nijednom trenutku ne banalizuje ili nepristojno uprosti.

„Samooblikovanje u renesansi“ je ključna knjiga novog istorizma, književne metodologije sa tri stuba u temelju – antropologija Kliforda Gerca, filozofija Mišela Fukoa i, naravno, Bahtin. Novi istorizam ili poetika kulture, kako Grinblat naziva svoja tumačenja, polje interpretacije širi izvan književnog teksta, odnosno, ako je jezik, kao i drugi sistemi znakova, kolektivna konstrukcija; zadatak tumačenja književnog teksta mora biti mnogo osetljivije sagledavanje ove činjenice, istraživanjem kako društvenog predstavljanje književnog teksta svetu, tako i društvene prisutnosti sveta u književnom tekstu. Stoga, književni tekst iz prošlosti se pokazuje kao izuzetno osetljivi registar složenih borbi i harmonija onovremene kulture koje proučavalac iznalazi.

Ovde Grinblat ispituje kompleksno shvatanje identiteta kod šest pisaca engleske renesanse (Tomasa Mora, Vilijema Tindla, Tomasa Vajata, Edmunda Spensera, Kristofera Marloa i Vilijema Šekspira). Iako vidno različite, njihove biografije oličavaju suštinsku pokretljivost (pre svega ekonomsku i društvenu, ali i ideološku i geografsku) koja se javlja u renesansi, posebno u Engleskoj kao posledica pomeranje instance vrhovnog autoriteta sa rimokatoličke crkve na engleskog vladara, ali i štampanu Bibliju. Ideja samooblikovanja – ideja da su identitet i javna persona nešto artificijelno, što je podložno preoblikovanju, izmišljanju, fake it until you make it, prerušava, glumi – javlja se tokom ovog perioda i nju na različite načine oličavaju svi ovi pisci i svojim životima i kroz svoja dela. Za Grinblata samoblikovanje kod renesansnog čoveka se javlja u tački susreta autoriteta (potčinjavanje apsolutnoj moći ili autoritetu – Bog, sveta knjiga, crkva, dvor, kolonijalna uprava) i tuđina (preteće drugo – jeretik, divljak, izdajnik, Antihrist), ali tako da ono što nastaje iz ovog susreta uvek ima udeo i autoriteta i udeo tuđina, i da otud svaki postignuti identitet uvek u sebi ima znakove sopstvenog podrivanja ili gubitka. I tako iz eseja u esej predsatvlja nam se kako je svaki od njih odgovorio na sjaj i bedu, moć i nemoć samooblikovanja.

Kao što rekoh, Grinblat je uzbudljiv pripovedač, zna da napravi napetu atmosferu – ne bih rekao da se čita kao triler, ali recimo da je poprilično uzbudljivo štivo za jednu stručnu knjigu. Ima ovde i brižljivo osmišljene forme poglavlja i odnegovanog stila i interesantnih istorijskih podataka i neverovatnih odlomaka iz istorijskih dokumenata, a i one svesti da mnoge stvari koje su se pojavile u osvitu modernog čoveka važe potpuno i danas.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my field of early modern studies, this book is a must read. It establishes much in the field of new historicism, and its reading of Thomas More is ingenious...but sometimes, the argument is, frankly, ludicrous. When Greenblatt tries to make strong links between events in disparate centuries and cultures, the argument doesn't hold. Of course, it's partly because he had such a great influence on how we read texts & apply stringent non-historical standards to our reading that it's possible to say this!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Greenblatt daringly takes us beyond the text of several of the giants of the English Renaissance, exploring the context that informed their works and lives. Highly speculative, but always plausible, the work ranges from St. Thomas More, through Tyndale, Marlowe, Spenser, and, yes, Shakespear, taking in along the way such diverse topics as the politics of Elizabethan homosexuality and the early stirrings of the colonialist ethic. This book is indispensible to anyone with even a passing interest in these great writers, or in the culture through which they moved.

[David C Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deserves its reputation and its influence in the disciplines of the humanities, from literature to history. (It’s cited, I bet, in virtually every dissertation and monograph on western culture written in the last 20 years.) it’s essentially the story of the emergence of the autonomous individual at the same time as that autonomy is hedged in by the new society it creates, a ceaseless dialectic. It’s very well written and argued. 4.8 stars because the remainder of the book does not quite live up to the beginning with its magisterial treatment of More and Tyndall, the great conflicted opponents of the English reformation. Although this is a study of texts, Greenblatt is very acute on power.

Also: I don’t quite believe Greenblatt’s ending story about the man on the airplane and the need to maintain his (SG’s) freedom and autonomous will by not mouthing “I want to die.” The clue for me is that SG is reading Clifford Geertz, the other omnipresent source in the methodological footnotes. But true or not it doesn’t really matter since, as Greenblatt has shown, he is writing his own story.

[Jasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve only given this a low rating because it wasn’t particularly useful for my own field of study - I’m sure it could be useful to others, however.

[Yakut Akbay]

The concept of self-fashioning introduced by Greenblatt owing to his close reading of Shakespeare's plays can be applied to literary works in which characters particularly protagonists are preoccupied with the social standards and values thereby trying to construct the identity based solely on the expectations of the public.

[Camila · Rating 4 out of 5]

this whole book is phenomenal but the second half, especially the chapter on spenser and the epilogue, is a slay.

[Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

One thing I like most about Greenblatt is his critical purpose. It seldom feels that his essays are based on a clever arrangement of texts. To me, Greenblatt is very conscious of the way literature should answer or prod something in its reader's consciousness or sentiment. In the case of this book, Greenblatt uses specific authors like More or Marlowe to show how people living in the 15th and 16th century were being made aware of their inner life, and how they can choose how to present that inner life to the people around them. Of course, it's a seminal book for early modern or Renaissance studies. But thinking through the idea of self-fashioning, it could easily be considered a window into modern individualism as it interacts with culture.

[Freya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating piece of literary critics, I especially enjoyed the discussion of self-fashioning in regards to Moore's 'Utopia' and Shakespeare's 'Othello'. Definitely recommend, but this is not a piece of light reading!

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

one the big shot new historicst texts. though a good counterpoint to tillyard, say, has its own defects (as one professor intoned long ago: Marxism lite.)

[Helene Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of my dissertation history research into image and perception. It is a fascinating read, looking at how public character is created, and how power comes from image. Identity has always been an interesting question across history, and Greenblatt explores this in detail with specific regard to the sixteenth century and some of the most important literary figures within it, though it is very male-focused, as much was at that time. Greenblatt looks at the likes of Thomas More, Thomas Wyatt, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare among others.

Reading this can be quite heavy going at times as there is a lot of detail and, for me at least, a few new concepts that I wanted to make notes on and delve further into. But it is a book that has remained with me since I first read it, because it was so influential on my history dissertation research. It is a fascinating look at culture and the development of the self, perhaps epitomised in a female Tudor rather than the male: Elizabeth I. Her image of Gloriana and the Virgin Queen was made in literature though isn't really discussed here. It would be interesting to see this book reimagined with much more emphasis on the females of the sixteenth century, perhaps.

Although now sometimes dated, Greenblatt's work was essential for me and there are very detailed notes to accompany different sections of the text where it would have ruined the flow to have those notes within the text itself. If you're interested in Tudor culture and image perception then I would recommend Greenblatt's work, though sometimes maybe worth taking it with a pinch of salt, as some ideas are now considered a little dated.

[Stephen Selbst · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Stephen Greenblatt's work since I read Will in the World. His work combines penetrating literary insights with an analysis of the social and cultural conditions that inform the texts. In Renaissance Self -Fashioning, Greenblatt looks at the works of six Renaissance writers and examines how each of them used their writings to help establish their public personas. The first half of the book focuses on how the writings of More, Tyndale and Wyatt were used as ammunition in the violent religious struggles that ensued in England in the wake of the Reformation. The second half of the book, which covers Spenser, Marlowe and Shakespeare, is closer in form to more traditional literary criticism, although Greenblatt does make his points about the societal implications of their work. I loved the chapter on Marlowe, which I thought was very fresh. The final chapter on Othello was the closest literary analysis, and excellent as such, but was the weakest on the social/cultural implications. This is not an easy read, but it a tour de force whose intellectual force is simply stunning.

[Hal]

uhm... now what. i can not believe i finished this book i've been reading since like... may. oh my gooooddd. i don't know what to say and i don't know what to rate this. it feels weird even contemplating rating this. more than anything it feels like i'm just stepping into a whole new world now.

anyway what the fuck was up with the way this guy talked about edward ii? i'm sorry his death was "iconographically accurate"??? man what the fu

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Early Modern studies Greenblatt is essential reading. He examines a selection of works from Renaissance authors such as More, Wyatt, and  Marlowe. He provides an interesting discussion on More's Utopia and Spenser's Faerie Queen. However, he leaves many areas unexplored and some of his arguments, if not unsubstantiated, not entirely convincing. 
On the whole, it is an important interpretation of the literature and well worth reading.

[Luke Ziegler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like if he wanted to write a foucauldian reading of renaissance intellectuals there was a better way to do that than this.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

ponderous, man

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and inspired work of continuity, research and analysis. The discussion of Thomas More and William Tyndale's discourse within the reformation for the religious soul of England is actually thrilling. The boundaries of the religious debate/institutions, and the politics of the courts (of the Monarchs) are by nature of Greenblatt's referents - concerned with clarity of purpose, and this is the author's strongest narrative. The later chapters on the figures of Elizabethan exploration/colonialism are presented through the shifting subjective nature of poesy and the author appears to need more sources and threads to support his ideas and this is occasionally dis-orientating. The discrepancy could be a necessary adaptation of style to the source material, or interpreted in another sense as pointing to the modes of inherited expressions/communications within the culture of contemporary England. Perhaps the structures of the English institutions of the renaissance are present and familiar to the contemporary native English reader because those structures must by necessity function and evolve in a single coherent voice (with memorability), while literature diversifies - at the most reductive level through communication between only a pair of individuals - and flourishes in unmoderated conditions.

Greenblatt moves from the localised re-ordering to the global with his analysis of '... the Destruction of the Bower of Bliss'. He argues that Spenser's poem of the destruction of a distant paradise is a symptomatic expression of the early attitude of the conquistadors/explorers to the temptations of the new lands and native cultures. He argues that the destruction is not an act of a self repulsed by the new world but a self strengthening its power to resist. He also investigates the success of the European colonialists in exploiting the new world native populations. He attributes this to the European ability to place themselves in the mind of another; a derivative of self-fashioning that emerges from the renaissance practice of rhetoric - arguing a point from both sides - and the development of drama. Greenblatt concludes with Shakespeare as the high-point in this period "...it would have seemed fatal to be imitated by Shakespeare. He possessed a limitless talent for entering into the consciousness of another, perceiving it's deepest structures as a manipulable fiction, re-inscribing it into his own narrative form".

[Ian Lepine · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, let me say that this book is a colossal effort of historiography. To anyone interested in the Renaissance, it will prove immensely useful in terms of bibliography because the themes it deals with permeate a lot of different aspects of Early Modern culture. I myself have quoted this book in about ten different essays this last year.

That being said, I do believe that argumentatively, this book has some pitfalls. First of all, Greenblatt seems to alternate between literary analysis of a character (Othello) and psychological analysis of an author (Spenser) as though they were very much the same thing. The methodology is exactly the same, and it does for a very unsettling read because you can't apply the same analytical categories to a character who was created with a specific aesthetic purpose in mind than to a person who is necessarily a much more psychologically complex entity.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A better read than John Martin's "Myths of Renaissance Individualism," which claimed that the individualistic self is only a modern idea, Stephen Greenblatt's "Renaissance Self-Fashioning" uses literary analysis to show how six Renaissance Englishmen tried to define themselves. They navigated forces of authority and alien threats or individuals, commented on social codes, and used language to make something new of themselves. Of course, this individuality often failed in the face of strong forces of social control. Greenblatt implies that true individuality and agency may be a illusion, but we need the illusion of the self to get through the day. This interesting line of thought is buried under pretty dense literary and philosophical jargon. You should know something about Thomas More, Shakespeare, etc., before reading this one. Still, the text is clearer than in the case of John Martin's book on the same topic.

[Zara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Greenblatt is a fantastic writer. I love the way he examines one item in depth, like Holbein's 'The Ambassadors' (featured on the front cover) and then pulls back to relate it outwards, linking elements to More's life and work. This is a fascinating look at how 16th century writers (More, Tyndale, Wyatt, Spenser, Marlowe and Shakespeare) fashioned their identities in relation to the society around them. I found some of the early chapters were quite heavy to start with, but once I got into them this was a very engaging read. Greenblatt plays with ideas, making connections that I would never have thought of, and does a great job of linking literature with the historical context. I would love to be able to write like this.

[Anne Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can see how and why this book was a huge influence on historians. The ways in which entire world views and major aspects of western English speaking culture have their seeds in how few men responded to their circumstances is remarkable. As was the way they were at time completely at odds with one another. The idea of fashioning a self is still popular but perhaps not because of the plumbing of an inner life it might involve. Mores the pity. For anyone willing to read this, I'd also recommend, especially if you are a writer or actor or filmmaker, Ted Hughes' "Shakespeare and The Goddess of Complete Being".

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dense read, best tackled (and I dare say, best enjoyed) with forward knowledge of the texts mentioned within, notably (but not limited to): More's Utopia, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Marlowe's Tamburlaine and Shakespeare's Othello.

Certainly more Literary Criticism than historiography (although as ever, the two do mix), with rewarding insights and references to 16th century British society and politics littered throughout.

Would recommend as a text for a better understanding of Shakespeare, unsure as a guide to Tudor England.

[Giselle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book about Renaissance politics and influence. Greenblatt is an excellent writer whose language and theories are well exposed in a simple manner. His New Historicist approach is a fresh breeze in Renaissance literary criticism. I mostly loved the parts where he discusses Shakespeare and Marlowe.If you are into Elizabethan theatre and politics, then it is a must-read.

[Pinko Palest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really can't see why this was such a great hit in the late 80s-early 90s. It is quite interesting in places, but not throughout, and often the author reads way too much in certain instances. Not nearly as good as something like Carnival and Theatre by Michael Bristol or Monsters of the Deep by David Margolies

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a work for the feint of heart or as an introduction to Renaissance literature. Intriguing insights and assumptions, and for historians provides a new way of approaching/utilizing literature in our work.

[David Loveland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, intellectually stimulating, and, most importantly of all, has given me some great quotes for my dissertation!

[Vanessa Braganza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greenblatt is a god.

[Jo Bryant]

very dense read.

[TapMyShoulder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen Greenblatt must have been one of the richest academics to ever breathe and still, he wouldn't have been paid enough for this excellent piece (is he still alive, btw?)