Though his writings have long been integral to the canon of early modern English literature, it is only in very recent scholarship that Edmund Spenser has been understood as a preeminent anthropologist whose work develops a complex theory of cultural change.

Jennifer Klein Morrison, Matthew Greenfield

Contents: Introduction: Spenser and the theory of culture, Matthew Greenfield; Part I: Allegories of Cultural Development: Ruins and visions: Spenser, pictures, Rome, Leonard Barkan; Spenser's currencies, Donald Cheney; On the Renaissance Epic: Spenser and slavery, Maureen Quilligan; Part II: Allegories of Cultural Exchange: Translated states: Spenser and linguistic colonialism, Richard A. McCabe; Colonials write the nation: Spenser, Milton and England on the margins, Linda Gregerson; The social and political thought of Spenser in his maturity, Nicholas Canny; Part III: The Functions of Allegory: 'Worke fit for an Herauld': Spenser in the 90s, Paul Alpers; 'The enfolding dragon': Arthur and the moral economy of The Faerie Queene, Susanne L. Wofford; The postures of allegory, Kenneth Gross; Afterword: A view of the present state of Spenser studies: dialogue-wise, Andrew Hadfield and Willy Maley; Index.