Of Memory and Literary Form

Across readings of late sixteenth to mid-seventeenth century works, Kyle Pivetti argues that the writers of early modern England found in literary forms—including dumb shows, allegory, and rhyme—the means to construct national memory. By combining a historical analysis with formal readings of Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton as well as non-canonical texts like Gorboduc, it shows the mnemonic devices that help readers to recall lines of verse are the same devices that make the early modern national narrative.