Colin Clout (Again)

Abstract

This essay begins by asking what exactly it means to “know” Colin Clout in his several and striking appearances in Spenser’s poems. It goes on to consider the help in answering this question that a modern reader of Spenser might glean from writers and theorists of autofiction today. It points out three areas in which an understanding of autofictional techniques and values helps to shed light on the complex literary persona and praxis of Spenser’s Colin Clout—worldliness, voice, and performance—and sets out some exploratory arguments in relation to each of these.