Chamber Music: Elizabethan Sonnet-Sequences and the Pleasure of Criticism

Elisabeth Anne MacDonald-Murray is an assistant professor of English at
the University of Western Ontario.

Chamber Music is not so much a unified work of literary criticism as it
is a virtuoso performance: variations on an early modern theme. Yet
despite its often bewildering variety of discourses, approaches, and
perspectives, the text as a whole reflects Kuin’s advocacy of a
“critical hedonism.” From the preface (in which he describes
Renaissance sonnet–sequences as “the great gourmet pleasures of
Western literature”) to the final “Encore,” Kuin both extols and
explores the sheer pleasure of reading these unique gems of the early
modern literary canon. Pleasure becomes not a secondary product of the
act of reading, but the primary object of the exercise.

Kuin makes it clear from the outset that his object in writing is not
to assume a single authoritative critical stance from which to dictate a
definitive thesis on the true meaning of Renaissance sonnet–sequences.
Rather, he seeks to present the musings, observations, and perspectives
that have arisen from more than two decades of reading, teaching, and
studying sonnet–sequences. At the same time, he attempts to define and
employ a new form of criticism, which he calls modern (as opposed to
postmodern) criticism. Taking its cue from modern art, modern criticism
foregrounds its own form, creating a text in which the form and content
are inseparable in which and the discourse is both the product and the
reflection of the matter discussed. The result is a text that is complex
and frequently confusing, as Kuin experiments with different styles and
discourses, juxtaposing Renaissance literary theories and conventions
with the writings of 20th-century European philosophers and literary
theorists.

Reading this text requires a suspension of “stylistic disbelief,”
and the reader would probably find it helpful to first consult the
appendix, “Discourse and Its Choices,” which provides a stylistic
guide to the many discourses employed throughout the book. Chamber Music
is not a typical work of literary theory, nor is it intended for the
average student or researcher. However, as a bravura exercise in
critical thought, it captures “the challenging pleasure of thought.”