Concise Companion to Middle English Literature

Marilyn Corrie is a lecturer in English at University College London. She specializes in Middle English literature, and has published essays on writing and manuscripts of the early Middle English period, Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, and the history of the English language in the medieval period. She is the author of a forthcoming book about Malory's Morte Darthur and religion in the late Middle Ages.

"This new concise companion engages with the difficulties of periodization but nonetheless asserts that there is a scholarly volue to considering 'Middle English Literature' as a discrete body of texts, written between c.1100 and c.1500. And indeed, this wonderfully erudite and readable volume proves this point." (Notes and Queries, 1 June 2011) "All of the essays examine canonical writers and texts but also discuss writers and works that are infrequently taught in traditional undergraduate (or even graduate) survey courses, and this is an encouraging move." (CHOICE, 2009)

• List of Illustrations viiList of Contributors viiiAcknowledgements xiIntroduction 1Marilyn CorriePart I Key Contexts 71 Signs and Symbols 9Barry Windeatt2 Religious Belief 32Marilyn Corrie3 Women and Literature 54Catherine Sanok4 The Past 77Andrew GallowayPart II The Production of Middle English Literature 975 Production and Dissemination 99Alexandra Gillespie6 The Author 120Jane GriffithsPart III Writing in Middle English; Writing in England 1437 Language 145Jeremy J. Smith8 Translation and Adaptation 166Helen Cooper9 Contemporary Events 188Helen BarrPart IV Middle English Literature in the Post- Medieval World 20910 Manuscripts and Modern Editions 211Daniel Wakelin11 The Afterlife of Middle English Literature 232David MatthewsIndex 253