Description
About the Author
Douglas S. Pfeiffer is Associate Professor of English at Stony Brook University. He received his PhD from Columbia University's English and Comparative Literature Department and has taught at Columbia, Barnard College, The Cooper Union, and The University of California, Irvine. His research centers on Renaissance humanism, history of the book, and early modern poetry.
Reviews
Our habit of evaluating books based on their author's personality has a history, and in The Force of Character Douglas Pfeiffer identifies a decisive moment in that story, locating the roots of how and why, a half-century ago, Renaissance readers began searching for the life in the works. Learned, lucid, and consistently illuminating, Pfeiffer's contribution to our understanding of authorship and biography is a major one, to which many will be indebted. * Professor James Shapiro, Columbia University *
Force of Character challenges us to reconsider acquiescing too easily in arguments for the death of the author. It invites us instead to reflect on how the related reading and writing practices of early modernity, especially through their prefatory and other paratextual materials, tether authors' characters and intentions not only to their words but to the highly individualized, ethically inflected literary styles and agendas their words underwrite. * Professor Kathy Eden, Columbia University *
Awards
Winner of Honorable Mention, Prize for a First Book, Modern Language Association Winner, 2023 Roland H. Bainton Prize for literature, Sixteenth Century Society.
Book Information
ISBN 9780198714163
Author Douglas S. Pfeiffer
Format Hardback
Page Count 486
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 163mm * 35mm