Focusing on the transition from feudal relations to early capitalism—a transition made possible by a process that Marx called "primitive accumulation"—Richard Halpern analyzes the social forces that shaped the rhetorical and literary culture of the English Renaissance. In his view, economic modes of production are crucial factors in cultural as well as historical change. His intention is to show that a global investigation of economic and social transition can fruitfully supplement the more local, institutional reading of Renaissance literary texts produced by the new historicism. The first part of the book establishes a broad historical and theoretical context for understanding literary production in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Examining Tudor grammar schools as sites of both literary and ideological training, Halpern considers how Renaissance literary culture reflected and participated in the larger processes of class struggle and economic transformation. The book's second part analyzes works by four significant writers of the period—John Skelton, Thomas More, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare—against the backdrop of major economic and social developments. Literary critics, literary theorists, and specialists in Renaissance studies will welcome this challenging and important book.
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