Edmund Spenser‘s Dazzling Quest for Virtue in The Faerie...

Edmund Spenser‘s Dazzling Quest for Virtue in The Faerie Queene Voyeur: one who habitually seeks sexual stimulation by visual means (Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary). According to Babys Record, as a child my favorite stories included Daniel in the Lions Den, Jonah and the Whale, Elisha and the 40 Children Eaten by the Bears, The Three Little Pigs, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Before sex came violence, tamed by a mothers lap and blessed by the inspired Word. Voyeurism may well be the relation . . . of every reader to every novel, of every spectator to every painting, play and film (Paglia 191); as an innocent child, I had already allowed my untamed pagan eye to feast fully upon the delightful spectacle of†¦show more content†¦In my teaching I privileged the ethical voice, neglecting undoubtedly a wanton voice, dissolving the other into lust by its delicacy and splendor (Paglia 190). But now that I have read Sexual Personae I can no longer absolve myself of guilt for the pornographic eye in Spenser always wins (192). As a maverick literary critic, Paglia resists easy categorization. She rejects certain assumptions of contemporary criticism which substitutes political criteria for esthetic values. (It is easier to devise a quota system for the canon and its priesthood than to worship together). But her appreciation of Spenser is based upon a central tenant of deconstructionism: suspicion of the text. Paglia asserts that The Faerie Queene is didactic but also self-pleasuring (190). Spenser does not say what he means, for imagination can overwhelm moral intention (191). In other words, the visual fireworks generated by the poet contradict his intended message, that of showing us how to achieve holiness in the midst of a perverse world. The fight against evil stimulates rather than quenches the desires of the flesh. A serious charge indeed. No less surprising is Paglias comparison of Spenser with Chaucer who opposes extremism in all things (172). The earthy, natural Chaucer who accepts humanity with all its foibles is seen as more Christian than Spenser with his dazzling quest for virtue. Apparently Spenser glories, like Paglia, in an aristocratic,