Scholarship On Robert Burton's The Anatomy Of Melancholy

Author

Matthew Bishop, Utah State UniversityFollow

Date of Award

12-2016

Degree Type

Report

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Committee Chair(s)

Phebe Jensen

Committee

Phebe Jensen

Committee

Christine Cooper-Rompato

Committee

Lynne McNeill

Abstract

The history of scholarship on Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy will be explored in this thesis, beginning with a biographical background of Robert Burton and a brief description of The Anatomy of Melancholy. The overall arc of scholarship on Burton’s text began with a wave of early popularity in the seventeenth century, followed by a period of critical neglect in the eighteenth century when no new editions of the book were published. A renewed interest in the Anatomy in the nineteenth century led to a flurry of Burton studies in the twentieth century. The major trend in Burton scholarship has generally been a historical approach to studying the Anatomy, with a reader response methodology, championed by Stanley Fish, branching off as a major strand in the early 1970s. In the twenty-first century scholarship has clustered around exploring the historical context of the Anatomy, as exemplified by the research of Angus Gowland. A synthesis of historical and reader response research has recently been accomplished by Mary Lund.

Recommended Citation

Bishop, Matthew, "Scholarship On Robert Burton's The Anatomy Of Melancholy" (2016). All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023. 855.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/855