Eleanor Fapohunda Colloquium Series

Dr. Jason Lotz, "Spenser’s Problem of Modernity and Anglo-American Gardens"

Lawns, the liminal space between the public and private, stand as living allegories for the idea of America, paralleling the kind of self-fashioning Spenser champions in The Faerie Queene. In the Book of Temperance, Spenser diagnoses the problem of modernity and highlights, way before its time, the anxiety of a post-modern world. This essay explores the ways the American myth relies on Spenserian allegory to enforce its doctrines of individuality and diversity.