SPENSER'S "GARDEN OF ADONIS" (EDMUND SPENSER)
Abstract
This study presents a deconstructive analysis of stanzas 29-36 of Spenser's "Garden of Adonis" and demonstrates that Spenser's multivalent language supports the simultaneous and defensible existence of the multiplicity of readings. Hence the study does not seek to examine Spenser's "Garden" from any "central" hermeneutic standpoint. It focuses not upon what meanings are but how they are produced in different contexts. The analytic operation of this study narrates this generating process, that is, the production of meanings in interlocking contexts. The analysis as a narration of the signifying process is one aspect of this study. The other consists in a descriptive account of the analytic operation itself. The description becomes progressively a "self-reflexive" process of meta-movements, constituting meta-explanations of increasingly elaborate formulations. The analytic operation foregrounds a part of the rich polymorphic discourse, that is, the signifying process which is supported by Spenser's polysemic language. The description as a self-reflexive process ultimately foregrounds the awareness that the signifying process is endless. This awareness provides a closure to the present study of Spenser's "Garden."
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature
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