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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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Literary personification has long been taken for granted as an important aspect of Western narrative; Paul de Man has given it still greater prominence as 'the master trope of poetic discourse'. James Paxson here offers a much-needed critical and theoretical appraisal of personification in the light of poststructuralist thought and theory. The poetics of personification provides a historical reassessment of early theories, together with a sustained account of how literary personification works through an examination of narratological and semiotic codes and structures in the allegorical texts of Prudentius, Chaucer, Langland and Spenser. The device turns out to be anything but an aberration, oddity or barbarism, from ancient, medieval or early modern literature. Rather, it works as a complex artistic tool for revealing and advertising the problems and limits inherent in narration in particular and poetic or verbal creation in general.

Literary semiotics --- Poetics --- Personification in literature --- Literature, Medieval --- Rhetoric, Medieval --- Allegory --- History --- History and criticism --- Allegory. --- Personification in literature. --- Rhetoric, Medieval. --- History and criticism. --- 82-3 --- -Rhetoric, Medieval --- -Poetry --- Symbolism in literature --- European literature --- Medieval literature --- Pathetic fallacy --- Proza. Fictie. Narratologie --- -Technique --- -Proza. Fictie. Narratologie --- -82-3 --- 82-3 Proza. Fictie. Narratologie --- -Pathetic fallacy --- Poetry --- 82-3 Fiction. Prose narrative --- Fiction. Prose narrative --- Arts and Humanities --- Literature --- Poetics - History - To 1500 --- Literature, Medieval - History and criticism

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English fiction --- Point of view (Literature) --- First person narrative --- Animals in literature --- Personification in literature --- American fiction --- History and criticism --- 82-311.4 --- Schelmenroman. Picareske roman --- 82-311.4 Schelmenroman. Picareske roman --- Fiction --- Narration (Rhetoric) --- Persona (Literature) --- Pathetic fallacy --- Allegory --- Narrative, First person --- Literature --- Technique --- English fiction - History and criticism --- American fiction - History and criticism

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This study examines the attribution of abstract values to women by analyzing four characters spanning literary genres and more that 2000 years. Penelope, Macrina, Philosophia, and Beatrice are connected by their contribution to the theme of wisdom through their use of reason against passion. Feminine personification of reason and wisdom makes its own contribution as antidote to traditional understanding of ""feminine"" as ""emotional"" or ""irrational"".

Personification in literature. --- Wisdom in literature. --- Wisdom. --- Women in literature. --- Wisdom --- Wisdom in literature --- Personification in literature --- Women in literature --- Philosophy --- Philosophy & Religion --- Speculative Philosophy --- Woman (Christian theology) in literature --- Women in drama --- Women in poetry --- Pathetic fallacy --- Allegory --- Experience --- Intellect --- Learning and scholarship --- Reason

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S16/0195 --- S11/0607 --- S16/0223 --- S16/0416 --- Chinese literature --- -Animals in literature --- Allegory --- Personification in literature --- Symbolism in literature --- Signs and symbols in literature --- Symbolism in folk literature --- Pathetic fallacy --- China: Literature and theatrical art--Thematic studies --- China: Social sciences--Symbols --- China: Literature and theatrical art--Poetry: Tang --- China: Literature and theatrical art--Traditional novels: Pre-Tang and Tang: studies, texts and translations --- History and criticism --- Allegories --- Allegorieën --- Allégories --- Animals in literature --- Animals in poetry --- Animaux dans la littérature --- Animaux dans la poésie --- Beast epic --- Dieren in de literatuur --- Dieren in de poëzie --- Dierenepiek --- Dierenepos --- Dierenfabels --- Dierenromans --- Dierensprookjes --- Dierenverhalen --- Epopées animales --- Fables ésopiques --- Personificatie in de literatuur --- Personnification dans la littérature --- Symboliek in de literatuur --- Symbolisme dans la littérature --- Tang dynasty, 618-907