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UBC Theses and Dissertations

"Putting Hercules into a pinte-pot : seventeenth-century constructions of literary reputation Woolway, Joanne

Abstract

This thesis considers how the construction of literary reputation varies, through different editions of seventeenth-century biographies, in relation to events in political and church history during this period. The main focus is on Isaak Walton's textual changes in "lives" of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert, and Robert Sanderson, although consideration is given to other biographers, elegists and historians who were writing on similar subjects. An analysis of the role of literary executors in determining how a literary figure is seen by posterity - throug their presentation of death, friendships and writings - then leads to speculation as to the implications of such actions with regard to authorial self-presentation, intentionality, and interpretation of an author's work after his death.

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