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"Modern readers and writers find it natural to contrast the agency of realistic fictional characters to the constrained range of action typical of literary personifications. Yet no commentator before the eighteenth century suggests that prosopopoeia signals a form of reduced agency. Andrew Escobedo argues that premodern writers, including Spenser, Marlowe, and Milton, understood personification as a literary expression of will, an essentially energetic figure that depicted passion or concept transforming into action. As the will emerged as an isolatable faculty in the Christian Middle Ages, it was seen not only as the instrument of human agency but also as perversely independent of other human capacities, for example, intellect and moral character. Renaissance accounts of the will conceived of volition both as the means to self-creation and the faculty by which we lose control of ourselves. After offering a brief history of the will that isolates the distinctive features of the faculty in medieval and Renaissance thought, Escobedo makes his case through an examination of several personified figures in Renaissance literature: Conscience in the Tudor interludes, Despair in Doctor Faustus and book I of The Faerie Queen, Love in books III and IV of The Faerie Queen, and Sin in Paradise Lost. These examples demonstrate that literary personification did not amount to a dim reflection of "realistic" fictional character, but rather that it provided a literary means to explore the numerous conundrums posed by the premodern notion of the human will. This book will be of great interest to faculty and graduate students interested in Medieval studies and Renaissance literature. "This exhilarating and brilliant book will be a most welcome and timely addition to the ReFormations series, to which it will add distinction. It is also a book that can be relished sentence by sentence, as Escobedo is a writer of intellectual verve and boldness, making hard-won claims look obvious once made." --Sarah Beckwith, Duke University"--

English literature --- Personification in literature. --- Will in literature. --- Renaissance --- History and criticism. --- Pathetic fallacy --- Allegory

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Acts of Logos examines the 19th-century foundations of St. Petersburg's famous literary heritage, with a focus on the unifying principle of material animation. Ever since Pushkin's 1833 poem The Bronze Horseman, the city has provided a literary space in which inanimate things (noses, playing cards, overcoats) spring to life. Scollins's book addresses this issue of animacy by analyzing the powerful function of language in the city's literature, from its mythic origins-in which the tsar Peter appears as a God-like creator, calling his city forth from nothing-to the earliest texts of its literary tradition, when poets took up the pen to commit their own acts of verbal creation. Her interpretations shed new light on the canonical works of Pushkin and Gogol, exposing the performative and subversive possibilities of the poetic word in the Petersburg tradition, and revealing an emerging literary culture capable of challenging the official narratives of the state.

Russian literature --- Personification in literature. --- Symbolism in literature. --- Signs and symbols in literature --- Symbolism in folk literature --- Pathetic fallacy --- Allegory --- History and criticism. --- Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, --- Gogolʹ, Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich, --- Пушкин, Александр Сергеевич, --- Poesjkin, Alexander, --- Puszkin, Aleksander, --- Puschkin, Alexander, --- Pouchkine, Alexandre, --- Poushkin, Alexander, --- Puškin, Alexandr Sergějevič, --- Пушкін, Олександр Сергійович, --- Pushkin, Oleksandr Serhiĭovych, --- Пушкин, А. С. --- Pushkin, A. S. --- Pushkin, Alexander, --- Pʻu-hsi-chin, --- Pushkin, A. --- Пускин, Александр, --- Puskin, Aleksandr, --- Pooshkeen, Alexander, --- Pushḳin, Aleksander S. --- Puškin, Alexander Sergeevich, --- Puškin, Aleksandar S., --- Puškini, Alekʻsandre, --- Puskin, Alé̂chxanđrơ, --- Puskin, Alegsandar, --- Pushkin, Alejandro Sergueevich, --- Puchkin, Alejandro Serguievich, --- Puschkin, A. S. --- Puṣkin̲, Aleksāṇṭar, --- Pushkin, Alexandr, --- פושקין --- פושקין, אלכסנדר סרגיביץ׳, --- פושקין, אלכסנדר סרגייביץ --- פושקין, אלכסנדר סרגייביץ׳, 1799־1837 --- פושקין, אלקסנדר סרגיביץ, --- פושקין, א. --- פושקין, א. ס, --- פושקין, א. ס. --- פושקין, ס. --- 普希金, A. S., --- Pușkin, A. S., --- Гоголь, Николай Васильевич, --- Гоголь, Микола Васильович, --- Hoholʹ, Mykola Vasylʹovych, --- Ko-kuo-li, --- Geguoli, --- Гогаль, Н. В., --- Hohalʹ, N. V., --- Gogol, Mikołaj, --- Gogolis, N., --- Gogol, Nikolay Vasilyevich, --- Гоголь, Н. В. --- Gogolʹ, N. V. --- Gogol, Nicolai, --- Gogolʹ, Nicola, --- Kuo-ko-li, --- Guogeli, --- Гоголь, --- Gogolʹ, --- Gōgori, Nikorai, --- Gōgori, Nikorai Vashīrievichi, --- Gogolʹ, Nikolaj, --- Gogol, Nicolas, --- Gogolli, En, --- Gogolj, Nikolaj, --- Gogol, Nicolaus, --- Gogol, Nikolaus, --- Gogolj, N. V., --- גאגאל, נ. וו., --- גאגאל, נ.וו --- גוגול --- גוגול, י. וו., --- גוגול, ניקולאי --- גוגול, ניקולאי ואסילייביץ --- גוגול, ניקולאי ואסילייביץ', --- גוגול, ניקולאי וסילביץ', --- גוגול, ניקולאי ו., --- גוגול, ניקולאי, --- גוגול, נ. ו. --- גוגול, נ. ו., --- גוגל, נ. ו. --- 果戈理, --- 果戈里, --- Gogol, Nicholai V., --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Saint Petersburg (Russia) --- Saint Petersburg (R.S.F.S.R.) --- Pietari (Russia) --- Peterburi (Russia) --- Peterburg (Russia) --- Piter (Russia) --- St. Petersburg (Russia) --- Petersburg (Russia) --- Sankt-Peterburg (Russia) --- Санкт-Петербург (Russia) --- Sanktpeterburg (Russia) --- Санктпетербург (Russia) --- Saint-Pétersbourg (Russia) --- San Pietroburgo (Russia) --- Petroupolis (Russia) --- Petropolis (Russia) --- Petrograd (R.S.F.S.R.) --- Leningrad (R.S.F.S.R.) --- In literature. --- Puškin, Aleksandr Sergeevič --- Poesjkin, A. S. --- Poesjkin, Alexander --- Pouchkine, Alexandre --- Puschkin, Alexander --- Puschkin, Alexander Sergejewitsch --- Pushkin, Alexander --- Pusjkin, Aleksandr Sergejevitsj --- Puškin, A. S. --- Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich --- Literature. --- Russian literature. --- History and criticism --- Gogolʹ, Nikolaĭ Vasilʹevich, --- 1800-1899. --- Russia (Federation)