Learning to Curse

One of the foremost figures in Renaissance studies today, Stephen Greenblatt is also a pioneer of the "new historicism"--the influential theoretical movement in cultural criticism that is radically refashioning study of the humanities. Now available in paperback,Learning to Cursecombines historical and anthropological techniques with rigorous textual analysis and vivid writing. Greenblatt produces imaginative and often disturbing approaches to issues and authors that once seemed comfortably familiar. By focusing on such problems as the relationship between cultural identity and otherness in early modern culture; the uses of violence--both physical and rhetorical--against those identified as aliens; and the role of the imagination in efforts to shape and stabilize bothe cultural and personal identity,Learning toCurseexposes a Renaissance world make challenging and strange, forcing the reader to develop new ways of seeing andunderstanding.