The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Literature 1100–1500

by Edited by Larry Scanlon

• ISBN13: 9780521841672
• ISBN10: 0521841674
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-07-20
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The medieval period was one of extraordinary literary achievement sustained over centuries of great change, anchored by the Norman invasion and its aftermath, the re-emergence of English as the nation's leading literary language in the fourteenth century and the advent of print in the fifteenth. This Companion spans four full centuries to survey this most formative and turbulent era in the history of literature in English. Exploring the period's key authors - Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain-Poet, Margery Kempe, among many - and genres - plays, romances, poems and epics - the book offers an overview of the riches of medieval writing. The essays map out the flourishing field of medieval literary studies and point towards new directions and approaches. Designed to be accessible to students, the book also features a chronology and guide to further reading.

Table of Contents

Chronology; Introduction Larry Scanlon; Part I. Contexts, Genres, and Traditions: 1. Re-inventing English: Middle English language and its literature Wendy Scase; 2. Textual production and textual communities Richard Firth Green; 3. Religious writing: hagiography, pastoralia, devotional and contemplative works Richard Newhauser; 4. Romance Christine Chism; 5. Dialogue, debate, and dream vision Steven F. Kruger; 6. Drama Sarah Beckwith; 7. Lyric Ardis Butterfield; 8. Lollard writings Rita Copeland; Part II. Authors: 9. William Langland Ralph Hanna; 10. The Gawain-Poet Sarah Stanbury; 11. John Gower Diane Watt; 12. Geoffrey Chaucer Larry Scanlon; 13. Julian of Norwich Lynn Staley; 14. Thomas Hoccleve Ethan Knapp; 15. John Lydgate James Simpson; 16. Margery Kempe Rebecca Krug; 17. Sir Thomas Malory David Wallace; 18. Robert Henryson Sally Mapstone; Guide to further reading.