The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Literature 1100-1500 (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

✍ Scribed by Larry Scanlon

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 295
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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

the cambridge companion to
medieval english literature 1100–1500......Page 2
Contens......Page 6
Abbreviations......Page 8
Contributors......Page 10
Chronology......Page 12
Introduction......Page 22
1 Re-inventing the vernacular: Middle English language
and its literature......Page 30
2 Textual production and textual communities......Page 44
3 Religious writing: hagiography, pastoralia , devotional
and contemplative works......Page 56
4 Romance......Page 76
5 Dialogue, debate, and dream vision......Page 90
6 Drama......Page 102
7 Lyric......Page 114
8 Lollard writings......Page 130
9 William Langland......Page 142
10 The Gawain -poet......Page 156
11 John Gower......Page 170
12 Geoffrey Chaucer......Page 182
13 Julian of Norwich......Page 196
14 Thomas Hoccleve......Page 208
15 John Lydgate......Page 222
16 Margery Kempe......Page 234
17 Sir Thomas Malory......Page 246
18 Robert Henryson......Page 260
Guide to further reading......Page 274