Solitude and Speechlessness: Renaissance Writing and Reading in Isolation

"Solitude and Speechlessness is a book that scholars of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English poetry will appreciate for its detailed, precise, and accurate analysis of canonical works. It provides a re-reading of such works through a peculiar lens: the pursuit, or fear, of the sense of isolation that allows us to find, but also lose, ourselves."

Elena Brizio, Georgetown University, Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme

"In his remarkable study, Andrew Mattison offers a fascinating examination of the various and self-conscious forms of literary withdrawal within sixteenth and seventeenth-century English writings, and of the implications that such a poetics of isolation have for the writing of literary history."

Joshua Easterling, Murray State University, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching

"In our current global experience of isolation, Mattison’s book has special resonance. Among many achievements, it reminds us of the virtue of being ambitious readers, challenging ourselves to wander from familiar paths."

Anna Welch, State Library Victoria, Parergon

"Written in lively and engaging prose, Solitude and Speechlessness returns readers to the problematic of the literary text through a new and exciting lens, reminding us of the hermeneutic humility and epistemological uncertainty that we should exercise when entering into this strange yet rewarding period of literary history."

Grant Williams, Department of English, Carleton University

"Solitude and Speechlessness is a serious, sophisticated, and well-informed discussion of a series of English poets from the late-sixteenth to the late-seventeenth-century, centered on the relations between authorial self-consciousness and literary history."

Gordon Braden, Department of English, University of Virginia