The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature

by David Wallace

Overview

This is the first full-scale history of medieval English literature in nearly a century. Thirty-three contributors provide information on a vast range of literary texts and the conditions of their production and reception. The volume also contains a chronology, full bibliography and a detailed index. This book offers the most extensive account available of the medieval literatures so drastically reconfigured in Tudor England. It will prove essential reading for scholars of the Renaissance as well as medievalists, and for historians as well as literary specialists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521444200
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/21/1999
Series:	The New Cambridge History of English Literature
Pages:	1066
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.33(h) x 2.24(d)

About the Author

David Wallace is the Judith Rodin Professor of English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Chaucerian Polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy (1997); Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron (1991); Chaucer and the early writings of Boccaccio (1985); Bodies and Disciplines: Intersections of Literature and History in Fifteenth-Century England (ed. with Barbara A Hanawalt).

Table of Contents

General introduction David Wallace; Part I. After the Norman Conquest: Introduction David Wallace; 1. Old English and its afterlife Seth Lerer; 2. Anglo-Norman cultures in England,1066–1460 Susan Crane; 3. Early Middle English Thomas Hahn; 4. National, world, and women's history writers and readers in post-Conquest England Lesley Johnson and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne; 5. Latinitas Christopher Baswell; 6. Romance in England 1066–1400 Rosalind Field; Part II. Writing in the British Isles: Introduction David Wallace; 7. Writing in Wales Brynley F. Roberts; 8. Writing in Ireland Terence Dolan; 9. Writing in Scotland R. James Goldstein; 10. Writing history in England Andrew Galloway; 11. London texts and literate practice Sheila Lindenbaum; Part III. Institutional Productions: Introduction David Wallace; 12. Monastic productions Christopher Cannon; 13. The friars and medieval English literature John V. Fleming; 14. Classroom and confession Marjorie Curry Woods and Rita Copeland; 15. Literature and the law Richard Firth Green; 16. 'Vox Populi' and the literature of 1381 David Aers; 17. Englishing the Bible 1066–1549 David Lawton; Part IV. After the Black Death: Introduction David Wallace; 18. Alliterative poetry Ralph Hanna; 19. Piers Plowman Kathryn Kerby-Fulton; 20. The Middle English mystics Nicholas Watson; 21. Geoffrey Chaucer Glending Olson; 22. John Gower Winthrop Wetherbee; 23. Middle English lives Julia Boffey; Part V. Before the Reformation: Introduction David Wallace; 24. Hoccleve, Lydgate, and the Lancastrian Court Paul Strohm; 25. Lollardy Steven Justice; 26. Romance after 1400 Helen Cooper; 27. William Caxton Seth Lerer; 28. English drama from Ungodly Ludi to Sacred Play Lawrence M. Clopper; 29. The allegorical theatre: moralities, interludes, and Protestant drama John Watkins; 30. Literature and politics in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII Colin Burrow; 31. Reformed literature and literature reformed Brian Cummings; Chronologies; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"[T]heatre researchers are likely to find many of the...essays very useful and illuminating because the cultural history they depict has obvious implications for the study of theatre and performance." Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, City University of New York, Theatre Journal

"The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature provides a formidable set of tools for the critic of medieval literature....The unobtrusive editorial presence that allows chapters with widely diverging approaches is a useful and mature reflection of the accomodation of plurality for an intelligent reading of medieval literature....This is a scholarly and erudite publication." Times Literary Supplement

"The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature is an excellent and long overdue reassessment, which completes a paradigm shift in the study of English medieval literature. It synthesises and responds to developments in the field over the last twenty years, and forges them into a coherent whole. A pioneering work in the field of medieval studies, it is also a fascinating and highly rewarding reading experience, that should be shared by everyone in the discipline." Prof. Joerg Fichte, Tübingen University

"Recommended for all collections supporting medieval studies at the upper-division undergraduate level and above." Choice

From the Publisher