Work

Stone and speech in The Winter's Tale : Patronage, oral transmission, and ecology

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This article nuances the familiar binary of art and nature in The Winter's Tale by considering contemporary trends in manufacturing and art patronage that complicated both fields: trends that rendered nature a site for the circulation of cheap commodities, and incentivised wealthy patrons to signal their purchasing power by commissioning pieces so realistic that they seemed to merge with the natural sphere. Building on scholarship on oral culture and ecocriticism, this article suggests that Hermione's ‘awakening’ speech might be read as an extension of the movement towards hyperrealism, redeeming orality from contemporary prejudices and presenting it, instead, as an aesthetic artefact of its own.

Source: Cahiers Élisabéthains A Journal of English Renaissance Studies

DOI: 10.1177/01847678251387994

Author: Katrina L Spadaro

Institution: Freie Universität Berlin

Language: English

Topic: Renaissance Literature and Culture

Subfield: Classics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,400

Funder: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung