Colleagues:
I wondered if I could sample your opinions on Greenblatt's chapter on Spenser from Renaissance Self-Fashioning. Some of my questions include: Do you (and, if so, how do you) use this essay in teaching the Faerie Queene and/or framing Spenser in relation to Elizabethan culture as a "teaching tool". Does this essay inform your views on Book 2 in particular, the poem in general, the imperial/Irish Spenser, or in other ways? Do you detect its influence on Spenser reception, particularly among non-Spenserians? I'm not trying to rehearse the initial 'buzz' over its view of Spenser so much as to assess it as a canonical piece of criticism, and whether it is still as influential as it is often assumed to be.
Obviously, there are lots of other topics related to the chapter as well, all of which are encouraged.
Thanks,
Bruce Danner
St. Lawrence University
