Renaissance talk

"Renaissance" Talk is essentially a close study of the critical assumptions underlying present-day approaches to Renaissance literature - whether feminist, Marxist, new historicist, deconstructionist or others.

Proceeding on the assumption that confusion in Renaissance criticism arises from the way we talk and the vocabularies we use, Stewart "investigates" typical assertions in recent criticism of Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne and Herbert, using a Wittgensteinian method of "investigation." This involves "taking a thing" usually a statement, "apart." If a statement, under such scrutiny, seems to make no sense, or to lead critics into blind alleys, then we must try to clarify the expression.

As Stewart asserts, if we are to "go on together" in critical conversation, then we must find a way to sort out the confusion that arises from our language.