Shinn, Abigail. 2023. Spenser's Popular Pastoral: Hodgepodges and Genre Trouble in The Shepheardes Calender. Sillages Critique(34), ISSN 1272-3819 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

The article explores Spenser’s harnessing of popular culture in his Shepheardes Calender (1579). Highlighting references to almanacs, ballads and festival culture, and the poem’s use of regional and colloquial language, I argue that Spenser’s distinctly English pastoral relies on a commingling of classical precedent with popular motifs. The result is a cultural hodgepodge in which disparate literatures and voices combine to produce new effects, but whose constituent parts significantly remain legible to the reader. The Calender thus offers a playful, and provocative, reimagining of pastoral which advertises Spenser’s roving cultural palate and solidifies his claim to be England’s new poet.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.4000/sillagescritiques.14227
Keywords:	Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender, pastoral, popular culture
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	English and Comparative Literature
Dates:	Date Event 6 February 2023 Accepted 30 July 2023 Published
Item ID:	33119
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2023 16:27
Last Modified:	06 Sep 2023 13:59
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/33119

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