The Sense of Early Modern Writing

Exploring the interplay between early modernity and modernity, Mark Robson examines how post-Romantic aesthetics influence early modern rhetoric and poetics. He questions the classification of literary texts before literature was defined as a category, advocating for the importance of aisthesis, or perception and response, in reading. Drawing on thinkers like Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man, Robson's work challenges the notion that critical theory is irrelevant to early modern texts, offering a fresh theoretical perspective on their significance.