Ben Jonson and the culture of his time

本·琼森和他那个时代的文化

• 批准号: AH/H034277/1
• 负责人: Martin Butler
• 金额: $ 10.21万
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FH034277%2F1
• 关键词: Ben; Jonson; culture; his; time

Ben Jonson (1572-1637) is arguably the most important English Renaissance writer after Shakespeare. He left a large and varied body of works (seventeen plays, three dozen court entertainments, the equivalent of four volumes of verse, prose works, personal letters, and extensive marginalia), and maintained friendships with many of the leading intellectuals and writers of his time. His career intersects with the key social, cultural and political changes of the period. As a playwright, he was involved in the theatrical marketplace and the world of urban commerce, yet he was a keen critic of both the contemporary stage and city. As a court poet and masque writer, he worked for the aristocracy and the crown, ending his life as de facto poet laureate, yet he was deeply ambivalent about the world of power. And as man of letters, he endeavoured to create his own intellectual space, surrounding himself with a tribe of 'sons' and using the new medium of print publication to develop a model of ownership of his own texts which was profoundly influential for those who succeeded or imitated him. This project will re-evaluate Jonson in relation to these complex and overlapping institutional changes, exploring his life and works as a response to the distinctive opportunities and tensions of early modern England. Additionally, it will pay special attention to the ways in which Jonson has been remembered and reconstructed as a literary figure in later times.The project is organized around eight core issues, each of which has a chapter and takes up an established or emerging topic in early modern studies. The first two concern Jonson's self-fashioning: the book will study the image Jonson sought to project of himself as a writer (using analysis of his portraiture as well as his writing), and will look at the way that he sustained this image in his meticulous presentation of his printed texts (the author as his own editor) and in the circulation of his manuscripts (Jonson has never been adequately considered as a poet for manuscript). The next two themes are the interlinked zones of politics and religion. Drawing on the current and highly volatile historiography on the court and on Catholicism, the study will explore Jonson's role as aspiring but not always successful counsellor of princes, and the intellectual and artistic consequences of his religious dissent (he was a Catholic for twelve crucial years). A reading of the satirical comedies of London life will situate Jonson as a writer who charted the emergence of the early modern urban self-consciousness; and a study of his problematic late writings will reinterpret their peculiarities as a response to the social and cultural changes leading towards the civil war. Finally, two chapters address Jonson's influence and after-life: an account of Jonson's at times testy relationships with contemporary intellectuals and with the 'Sons of Ben', those poets who positioned themselves as his literary heirs; and an analysis of the stage traditions, adaptations, anecdotes and memories that proliferated after his death, including commentary on some rarely discussed operatic and film versions of his plays.This study will range widely across the plays, poetry, masques, and prose, and will draw extensively on work arising from the forthcoming Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson (eds. M. Butler, D. Bevington and I. Donaldson). It aims to draw together neglected aspects of his works, and to accommodate timely perspectives newly emerging in historiography, bibliography, and book history. It will foreground Jonson's intellectual relationships with scholars such as Selden, Camden and Cotton, and the response of his works to the ideological pressure points of pre-civil war England. It will also explore the way that the modern reception (and sometimes neglect) of Jonson has been conditioned by the myths about him that grew up after his death.

本·琼森（Ben Jonson，1572-1637）可以说是继莎士比亚之后最重要的英国文艺复兴作家。他留下了大量多样的作品（十七部戏剧、三打宫廷娱乐节目、相当于四卷的诗歌、散文作品、私人信件和大量旁注），并与当时许多领先的知识分子和作家保持着友谊。他的职业生涯与这一时期的关键社会、文化和政治变革相交叉。作为一名剧作家，他涉足戏剧市场和城市商业世界，同时他也是当代舞台和城市的敏锐批评家。作为一名宫廷诗人和假面作家，他为贵族和王室工作，以事实上的桂冠诗人的身份结束了自己的一生，但他对权力世界却抱有深深的矛盾心理。作为文人，他努力创造自己的知识空间，周围有一群“儿子”，并利用印刷出版的新媒介发展了一种自己的文本所有权模式，这对那些继承或模仿他的人产生了深远的影响。该项目将重新评估琼森与这些复杂且重叠的制度变迁的关系，探索他的生活和作品，以回应现代早期英格兰的独特机遇和紧张局势。此外，它将特别关注琼森后来作为文学人物被记住和重建的方式。该项目围绕八个核心问题组织，每个问题都有一个章节，并涉及早期现代研究中已确定或新兴的主题。前两个涉及琼森的自我塑造：本书将研究琼森试图将自己塑造为一名作家的形象（通过对他的肖像和写作的分析），并将研究他在精心呈现印刷文本（作者是他自己的编辑）和手稿流通中维持这一形象的方式（琼森从未被充分视为手稿诗人）。接下来的两个主题是政治和宗教的相互关联的领域。该研究将借鉴当前宫廷和天主教的高度不稳定的史学，探讨琼森作为有抱负但并不总是成功的王子顾问的角色，以及他的宗教异议的知识和艺术后果（他在关键的十二年里是天主教徒）。阅读有关伦敦生活的讽刺喜剧，就会发现琼森是一位描绘了早期现代城市自我意识的出现的作家。对他有问题的晚期著作的研究将重新解释它们的特殊性，作为对导致内战的社会和文化变化的回应。最后，有两章讨论了琼森的影响和来世：描述了琼森与当代知识分子以及“本之子”（那些将自己定位为他的文学继承人的诗人）之间时而紧张的关系；以及对他死后激增的舞台传统、改编、轶事和记忆的分析，包括对他戏剧的一些很少讨论的歌剧和电影版本的评论。这项研究将广泛涉及戏剧、诗歌、假面和散文，并将广泛借鉴即将出版的《本·琼森作品剑桥版》（编：M.巴特勒、D.贝文顿和I. 唐纳森）。它的目的是汇集他作品中被忽视的方面，并适应史学、参考书目和书籍史中新出现的及时观点。它将突出琼森与塞尔登、卡姆登和科顿等学者的知识关系，以及他的作品对内战前英国意识形态压力点的反应。它还将探讨现代对琼森的接受（有时是忽视）是如何受到他死后成长的有关他的神话的影响的。

项目成果

Ben Jonson's Catholicism

本·琼森的天主教信仰

• DOI: 10.3366/bjj.2012.0053
• 发表时间: 2012
• 期刊: Ben Jonson Journal
• 影响因子: 0.5
• 作者: Butler M