Fictional Elements in Sixteenth-and Seventeenth-Century Sonnet Sequences and Early Modern Fictions

Abstract

Sonnet sequences printed in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries contain fictional mechanisms such as truth-telling frames, arguments, and meta-fictional discourse, and display elements of early modern printing practices also employed in the printing of fictional narratives. A comparison with similar elements present in early English narratives and novels suggests that early modern writer, reader, and editor saw elements of narrativity in sonnet sequences, which invites a reconsideration of the sonnet sequence as a part of the history of fictional writing.