Introduction to The Gawain-Poet

Ad Putter is Professor of Medieval English Literature at the University of Bristol, UK.

"This is an excellent book, which will serve as a sound and lively introduction for students, but also makes an impressive and substantial contribution to scholarly study of the Gawain-poet." English Studies "Ad Putter's Introduction is aimed at undergraduates and provides clearly written and largely independent critical introductions to the four poems." - TLS

• Preface Note on References and Abbreviations Acknowledgements 1. The Gawain-Poet in Context Introduction; The Poet's Reading; The Poet's way of Reading; The Poet in the Text: A humble cleric; The Poet in the Text: A Court-Poet; Dialect and Metre: The Gawain-Poet's Remoteness; A Historical Context for Alliterative Poetry 2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Introduction; Romance and Realism; Plot-telling and the Manipulation of Memory; Conclusion 3. Patience Introduction; Suffrance in the Prologue; The Gawain-Poet as a reader of the Bible; Dramatic Irony in the Story of Jonah; God and Man; From Revelation to Trust; 4. Pearl Introduction; Making Heaven Strange: The Description of Heaven; Reason and revelation: The Debate about Heaven; The Unkindness of Heaven; Patience and Protest in the Epilogue 5. Cleanness Introduction; Uncleanness and the Confusion of Kinds; Imitating God; The Beauty of Destruction; Cleaness and Knowing One's Place; Embodying Culture Bibliography