Denise N. Baker is Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She is the author of Julian of Norwich's Showings: From Vision to Book.

"An excellent example of New Historicism or 'critical historicism.' Many of the essays speak to one another and pick up issues only touched upon in earlier essays, or provide a complementary reading of the same works or an author's corpus. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the entire collection." — Deborah McGrady, Tulane University"This book deals with important texts and issues that will engage a variety of scholars and fill in the particulars of a confusing period of English and French history." — Lynn Staley, Colgate University

• Acknowledgments IntroductionDenise N. Baker 1. Warmongering in Verse: Les Voeux du HeronNorris J. Lacy 2. Inscribing the Body with Meaning: Chivalric Culture and the Norms of Violence in The Vows of the HeronPatricia DeMarco 3. Meed and the Economics of Chivalry in Piers PlowmanDenise N. Baker 4. Chaucer's Tale of Melibee: Contradictions and ContextJudith Ferster 5. Chaucer after Retters: The Wartime Origins of English LiteratureJohn M. Bowers 6. Politics and the French Language in England during the Hundred Years' War: The Case of John GowerR. F. Yeager 7. The Uncertainty in Defining France as a Nation in the Works of Eustache DeschampsEarl Jeffrey Richards 8. The Political Poetics of the Ditie de Jehanne d'ArcAnne D. Lutkus and Julia M. Walker 9. Clothing and Gender Definition: Joan of ArcSusan Crane 10. A Pacifist Utopia: Cleriadus et MeliadiceMichelle Szkilnik 11. The Hundred Years' War and National IdentityEllen C. Caldwell List of Contributors Index

Denise N. Baker is Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She is the author of Julian of Norwich's Showings: From Vision to Book.

"An excellent example of New Historicism or 'critical historicism.' Many of the essays speak to one another and pick up issues only touched upon in earlier essays, or provide a complementary reading of the same works or an author's corpus. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the entire collection." — Deborah McGrady, Tulane University"This book deals with important texts and issues that will engage a variety of scholars and fill in the particulars of a confusing period of English and French history." — Lynn Staley, Colgate University

• Acknowledgments IntroductionDenise N. Baker 1. Warmongering in Verse: Les Voeux du HeronNorris J. Lacy 2. Inscribing the Body with Meaning: Chivalric Culture and the Norms of Violence in The Vows of the HeronPatricia DeMarco 3. Meed and the Economics of Chivalry in Piers PlowmanDenise N. Baker 4. Chaucer's Tale of Melibee: Contradictions and ContextJudith Ferster 5. Chaucer after Retters: The Wartime Origins of English LiteratureJohn M. Bowers 6. Politics and the French Language in England during the Hundred Years' War: The Case of John GowerR. F. Yeager 7. The Uncertainty in Defining France as a Nation in the Works of Eustache DeschampsEarl Jeffrey Richards 8. The Political Poetics of the Ditie de Jehanne d'ArcAnne D. Lutkus and Julia M. Walker 9. Clothing and Gender Definition: Joan of ArcSusan Crane 10. A Pacifist Utopia: Cleriadus et MeliadiceMichelle Szkilnik 11. The Hundred Years' War and National IdentityEllen C. Caldwell List of Contributors Index

Denise N. Baker is Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She is the author of Julian of Norwich's Showings: From Vision to Book.

"An excellent example of New Historicism or 'critical historicism.' Many of the essays speak to one another and pick up issues only touched upon in earlier essays, or provide a complementary reading of the same works or an author's corpus. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the entire collection." — Deborah McGrady, Tulane University"This book deals with important texts and issues that will engage a variety of scholars and fill in the particulars of a confusing period of English and French history." — Lynn Staley, Colgate University

• Acknowledgments IntroductionDenise N. Baker 1. Warmongering in Verse: Les Voeux du HeronNorris J. Lacy 2. Inscribing the Body with Meaning: Chivalric Culture and the Norms of Violence in The Vows of the HeronPatricia DeMarco 3. Meed and the Economics of Chivalry in Piers PlowmanDenise N. Baker 4. Chaucer's Tale of Melibee: Contradictions and ContextJudith Ferster 5. Chaucer after Retters: The Wartime Origins of English LiteratureJohn M. Bowers 6. Politics and the French Language in England during the Hundred Years' War: The Case of John GowerR. F. Yeager 7. The Uncertainty in Defining France as a Nation in the Works of Eustache DeschampsEarl Jeffrey Richards 8. The Political Poetics of the Ditie de Jehanne d'ArcAnne D. Lutkus and Julia M. Walker 9. Clothing and Gender Definition: Joan of ArcSusan Crane 10. A Pacifist Utopia: Cleriadus et MeliadiceMichelle Szkilnik 11. The Hundred Years' War and National IdentityEllen C. Caldwell List of Contributors Index