A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture, c.1350 - c.1500

Peter Brown

John Wiley & Sons, Oct 26, 2009 - Literary Criticism - 688 pages

A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture, c.1350-c.1500 challenges readers to think beyond a narrowly defined canon and conventional disciplinary boundaries.

A ground-breaking collection of newly-commissioned essays on medieval literature and culture.

• Encourages students to think beyond a narrowly defined canon and conventional disciplinary boundaries.
• Reflects the erosion of the traditional, rigid boundary between medieval and early modern literature.
• Stresses the importance of constructing contexts for reading literature.
• Explores the extent to which medieval literature is in dialogue with other cultural products, including the literature of other countries, manuscripts and religion.
• Includes close readings of frequently-studied texts, including texts by Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain poet, and Hoccleve.
• Confronts some of the controversies that exercise students of medieval literature, such as those connected with literary theory, love, and chivalry and war.

Contents

• Overviews: 7
• Deference Ambition: 25
• Religious Authority and Dissent: 40
• City and Country Wealth and Labour: 56
• Womens Voices and Roles: 74
• The Production and Reception of Texts: 91
• From Manuscript to Modern Text: 107
• Translation and Society: 123
• Language and Literature: 141
• The Forms of Speech: 159
• Donka Minkova: 176
• Encounters with Other Cultures: 197
• Trade Travel Translation: 215
• Middle English Literature and the Classical Past: 231
• England in a World of Racial: 247
• Special Themes: 271
• Literature and Law: 292
• Images: 307
• Love: 322
• Genres: 339
• Shaping Identity in Medieval Historical Narratives: 358
• Dream Poems: 374
• Lyric: 387
• Literature of Religious Instruction: 406
• Mystical and Devotional Literature: 423
• Accounts of Lives: 437
• Codes and Genres: 454
• Morality and Interlude Drama: 473
• Readings: 489
• The Book of Margery Kempe: 507
• Julian of Norwich: 522
• Piers Plowman: 537
• Subjectivity and Ideology in the Canterbury Tales: 554
• Forms and Norms of Rhetorical: 569
• Thomas Hoccleve La Male Regle: 585
• Discipline and Relaxation in the Poetry of Robert Henryson: 605
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: 619
• Blood and Love in Malorys Morte Darthur: 634
• Index: 649

About the author

Peter Brown is Professor of Medieval English Literature at the University of Kent. His book publications include A Companion to Chaucer (Wiley-Blackwell, 2000), Reading Dreams: The Interpretation of Dreams from Chaucer to Shakespeare (1999), Chaucer at Work: The Making of the Canterbury Tales (1994) and, with Andrew Butcher, The Age of Saturn: Literature and History in the Canterbury Tales (1991).

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture, c.1350 - c.1500; Volume 101 of Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture
• Editor: Peter Brown
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2009
• ISBN: 1405195525, 9781405195522
• Length: 688 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / General