God's only daughter : Spenser's Una as the invisible Church / Kathryn Walls.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walls, Kathryn, author.

Contributor:

Manchester University Press, publisher.

Series:

Manchester Spenser

The Manchester Spenser

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599. Faerie queene.

Spenser, Edmund.

Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599--Criticism and interpretation.

Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599.

Christianity and literature--England--History--16th century.

Christianity and literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

England.

History.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 238 pages) : illustrations; digital file(s).

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2016.

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

data file

Summary:

In this study, Kathryn Walls challenges the standard identification of Una with the post-Reformation English Church, arguing that she is, rather, Augustine's City of God - the invisible Church, whose membership is known only to God. Una's story (its Tudor resonances notwithstanding) therefore embraces that of the Synagogue before the Incarnation as well as that of the Church in the time of Christ and thereafter. It also allegorises the redemptive process that sustains the true Church. Una is fallible in canto I. Subsequently, however, she comes to embody divine perfection. Her transformation depends upon the intervention of the lion as Christ. Convinced of the consistency and coherence of Spenser's allegory, Walls offers fresh interpretations of Abessa (as Synagoga), of the fauns and satyrs (the Gentiles), and of Una's dwarf (adiaphoric forms of worship). She also reinterprets Spenser's marriage metaphor, clarifying the significance of Red Cross as Una's spouse in the final canto.

"This is the first full-length study to be devoted to Una, the beleaguered but ultimately triumphant heroine of Book One of The Faerie Queene. Challenging the standard identification of Spenser's Una with the post-Reformation Church in England, Kathryn Walls argues that she stands, rather, for the invisible Church, the whole community of the redeemed, whose membership is known by God alone. Her story (its Tudor resonances notwithstanding) thus embraces that of the Synagogue before the Incarnation as well as that of the Church in the time of Christ and thereafter. Una's trajectory also allegorises the redemptive process that populates the City. Initially fallible, she undergoes a transformation that is explained by the appearance of the kingly lion as Christ in canto iii. Combining contextualisation with close reading, Walls offers new interpretations of the tragically alienated figure of Abessa in canto iii (as Synagoga), of the disarmingly feckless satyrs in canto vi (as the Gentiles of the Apostolic era), and of the unreliable yet indispensable dwarf (the embodiment of the adiaphora that define national Churches). Drawing on the Bible and on medieval allegories, she also reinterprets Spenser's marriage metaphor, clarifying the problematic significance of Red Cross as Una's spouse. These individual interpretations fall into place within a coherent account of what is shown to be, on Spenser's part, a consistent treatment of Una. God's only daughter will be of interest to established Spenserians, and to those many undergraduates for whom Spenser's Book of Holiness is a set text." --Back cover.

Contents:

Introduction: The Incarnation, allegory, and idolatry

1. The fallibility of Una

2. Una redeemed - the Incarnation

3. Una as the City of God

4. The City of God in history

5. Canto VI - The curch's mission to the gentiles

6. Una's adiaphoric dwarf

7. Una's trinitatian dimension

8. The multiplication of UnaList of work cited

Index

Notes:

Made available via: manchesterhive.

MUP 2020 titles.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-226) and index.

Description based on print record.

Other Format:

Print version: Walls, Kathryn. God's only daughter : Spenser's Una as the invisible Church,

ISBN:

9781526111135

Publisher Number:

www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781526111135/9781526111135.xml

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.