Major Writers of the Sixteenth Century English Sonnet

Bc. Viktor Vlček

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

The present bachelor thesis traces the development of the sonnet form in the English literature of the 16th century focusing on the major sonnet writers of the era. As the pioneers of the form, Wyatt and Surrey, drew their inspiration directly from the sonnet writing of the Italian provenance, a chapter is devoted to a short overview of the history of the sonnet in Italian literature, so that it is made clear which phase in its development in Italian literature the first sonneteers in English drew their models from. As the sonnets of Francesco Petrarca were of the utmost importance for sonnet writing in 16th England, the major English sonneteers’ approach to the literary convention Petrarch’s sonnets established is given close attention throughout the thesis. The extent in which they ventured to free themselves from it is seen as a measure of the poetic maturity and individuality of each of them, culminating in the mastery of The Sonnets of William Shakespeare. The thesis views the sonnet form as a space where some of the major concerns of the period were debated, as a site of intersection of a variety of discourses into which these concerns had crystallized. I focused at the discursive scope present in sonnets of Thomas Wyatt, George Gascoigne, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare. The sonnet collections of these authors have been chosen as representing the overall discursive variability in the sonnets of the period. Some of the discourses were prescribed by the overwhelming influence of the Petrarchan tradition (e.g. philosophical meditations, erotic discourses), while others were given by the age’s social realities and ideological struggles. Amongst these is the political discourse present in the sonnets of Thomas Wyatt and Philip Sidney, the public-vs.-private discourse and the self-conscious literary discourse of Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, the didactic and moral discourses of The Posies of George Gascoigne, the religious (Christian) discourse present in Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti and the homoerotic and the “mutability” discourse of The Sonnets of William Shakespeare.

Abstract:

The present bachelor thesis traces the development of the sonnet form in the English literature of the 16th century focusing on the major sonnet writers of the era. As the pioneers of the form, Wyatt and Surrey, drew their inspiration directly from the sonnet writing of the Italian provenance, a chapter is devoted to a short overview of the history of the sonnet in Italian literature, so that it is made clear which phase in its development in Italian literature the first sonneteers in English drew their models from. As the sonnets of Francesco Petrarca were of the utmost importance for sonnet writing in 16th England, the major English sonneteers’ approach to the literary convention Petrarch’s sonnets established is given close attention throughout the thesis. The extent in which they ventured to free themselves from it is seen as a measure of the poetic maturity and individuality of each of them, culminating in the mastery of The Sonnets of William Shakespeare. The thesis views the sonnet form as a space where some of the major concerns of the period were debated, as a site of intersection of a variety of discourses into which these concerns had crystallized. I focused at the discursive scope present in sonnets of Thomas Wyatt, George Gascoigne, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare. The sonnet collections of these authors have been chosen as representing the overall discursive variability in the sonnets of the period. Some of the discourses were prescribed by the overwhelming influence of the Petrarchan tradition (e.g. philosophical meditations, erotic discourses), while others were given by the age’s social realities and ideological struggles. Amongst these is the political discourse present in the sonnets of Thomas Wyatt and Philip Sidney, the public-vs.-private discourse and the self-conscious literary discourse of Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella, the didactic and moral discourses of The Posies of George Gascoigne, the religious (Christian) discourse present in Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti and the homoerotic and the “mutability” discourse of The Sonnets of William Shakespeare.

Keywords

sonnet, sonnet motifs, Sir Thomas Wyatt, George Gascoigne, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 5. 6. 2008

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 5. 6. 2008
• Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Pavel Drábek, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Bachelor programme / field:
Philology / English Language and Literature