Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Contemporary literary criticism has increasingly come to recognize religious issues in its secular concern with language and figuration. Attunement to the problematics of representation has particular ties to the Judaeo-Christian suspicion of idolatry; availing himself of that connection, Gross looks at episodes in The Faerie Queene as allegories of a crisis both discursive
and moral. The results vary, but the conclusion is suave and cogent—idolatry and iconoclasm are inseparable resources of a common activity—and the section on the Blatant Beast a special burst of light." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)