Langland's Fictions

by Burrow, John A.

• ISBN13: 9780198112938
• ISBN10: 0198112939
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-05-27
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

Langland's Piers Plowman is a profoundly Christian poem which nevertheless has enjoyed a wide general appeal. Readers--both religious and non-religious--have been drawn by the power of Langland's fictive imagination, the rich variety of imaginary worlds in his great dream-poem. Langland's Fictions examines the construction of the ten dreams which make up the B Text of Piers Plowman , and explores the relation of these dream-fictions to those realities with which the poet was chiefly preoccupied. This relationship is discussed under three main headings: "fictions of the divided mind," in which the poet's mixed feelings about matters such as the value of learning find expression in imagined scenes and actions; "fictions of history" in which the main events of salvation history are relived in the parallel worlds of dream; and "fictions of the self," in which Langland's doubtful sense of his own moral standing as a man and a poet apparently finds expression. This chapter also addresses the controversial question of "autobiographical elements" in the poem. John Burrow's lively study is a major contribution to our understanding of one of medieval literature's most enduring works.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Introduction	p. 1
A Gathering of Dreams	p. 6
Fictions of the Divided Mind	p. 28
Fictions of History	p. 53
Fictions of Self?	p. 82
Afterword	p. 109
Appendix A. Langland and Deguileville: Le Pelerinage de Jhesucrist	p. 113
Appendix B. Piers Plowman and Saint Peter: B xv. 195-212	p. 119
Select Bibliography	p. 123
Index	p. 129
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