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Why Lyrics Last: Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare's Sonnets
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Why Lyrics Last: Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare's Sonnets Hardback - 2012

by Brian Boyd

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From the publisher

In Why Lyrics Last, the internationally acclaimed critic Brian Boyd turns an evolutionary lens on the subject of lyric verse. He finds that lyric making, though it presents no advantages for the species in terms of survival and reproduction, is "universal across cultures because it fits constraints of the human mind." An evolutionary perspective-- especially when coupled with insights from aesthetics and literary history--has much to tell us about both verse and the lyrical impulse.

Boyd places the writing of lyrical verse within the human disposition "to play with pattern," and in an extended example he uncovers the many patterns to be found within Shakespeare's Sonnets. Shakespeare's bid for readership is unlike that of any sonneteer before him: he deliberately avoids all narrative, choosing to maximize the openness of the lyric and demonstrating the power that verse can have when liberated of story.

In eschewing narrative, Shakespeare plays freely with patterns of other kinds: words, images, sounds, structures; emotions and moods; argument and analogy; and natural rhythms, in daily, seasonal, and life cycles. In the originality of his stratagems, and in their sheer number and variety, both within and between sonnets, Shakespeare outdoes all competitors. A reading of the Sonnets informed by evolution is primed to attend to these complexities and better able to appreciate Shakespeare's remarkable gambit for immortal fame.

Details

  • Title Why Lyrics Last: Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare's Sonnets
  • Author Brian Boyd
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition First Edition; F
  • Pages 240
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Harvard University Press, Cambridge
  • Publication date 2012-04-05
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Index
  • ISBN 9780674065642 / 0674065646
  • Weight 0.92 lbs (0.42 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.4 x 5.77 x 0.86 in (21.34 x 14.66 x 2.18 cm)
  • Category Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Library of Congress subjects Shakespeare, William, Sonnets, English - History and criticism
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2011040339
  • Dewey Decimal Code 808.1

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Citations

  • Books & Culture, 01/01/2013, Page 19
  • Choice, 09/01/2012, Page 0
  • Chronicle of Higher Education, 04/06/2012, Page 15
  • Library Journal, 03/15/2012, Page 110

About the author

Brian Boyd is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of English, at the University of Auckland.
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