New Perspectives on Medieval Literature: Authors and Traditions – serie

In An Introduction to the Gawain Poet, John Bowers surveys an expanded selection of the works of Chaucer's anonymous contemporary, considering Sir Gawain and the Green Knight alongside the poet's lesser known but no less brilliant works. In addition to his succinct introductions and plot summaries, Bowers skillfully details the cultural, historical, political, and religious contexts for these works, synthesizing them with close reading of selected passages. Perhaps his most exciting contribution to the field is his choice to historicize the poet's life and works in the context of the royal culture of King Richard II, boldly contending that it was highly possible the Gawain Poet was a frequent visitor to Richard's court in London. The final chapter surveys the works influenced by, as well as the influences reflected in, the poet's work, from the Bible to The Lord of the Rings. The attention Bowers pays to the critical tradition that has developed around these texts over the past hundred years makes An Introduction to the Gawain Poet an ideal volume for both undergraduate students and scholars of the Gawain Poet. Bowers has marshaled his formidable skills to create a book impressive in its balanced combination of breadth and depth. John M. Bowers is professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the author of five books, including Chaucer and Langland: The Antagonistic Tradition.

Old French epic poems, or chansons de geste, are one of the most important traditions of the French Middle Ages. Consisting of ap¬proximately 120 poems including the famous Song of Roland, these tremendously popular songs were based on French history but often embellished in fantastical ways and written to be performed by minstrels.With an overview of the principal epic cycles, close readings of six major poems, and a glossary of key terms, Catherine Jones makes the chansons de geste accessible to students and any reader interested in learning more about this lively genre. She also presents an essential survey of traditional scholarship, such as debates about sources and elements of style, and raises intriguing contemporary questions related to alteration, gender, and genre. With its many critical layers, this book is ideal for undergraduates and teachers alike.

The legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table permeate our culture: we find them in novels, movie parodies, and even the American government. Yet beneath and before it all lies a deep literary tradition that has influenced history, art, and culture over the centuries.Examining the legend at its very source, An Introduction to British Arthurian Narrative covers over 400 years and discusses a broad range of romances, histories, and parodies written about King Arthur in Britain during the medieval period.The modern Anglo-American version of the Arthurian tale stems from Sir Thomas Malory's fifteenth-century compendium Le Morte D'Arthur, which was written at the end of the tale's first period of widespread popularity, which began in the early twelfth century. Susan Aronstein demonstrates that, as Arthur's transformation from a ""leader of battles"" in early histories, to a powerful chieftain in Welsh tales, and, finally, into England’s ""once and future king,"" at every point, these tales reflected the ongoing contest for sovereignty over the island of Britain-and the very definition of ""British.

Geoffrey Chaucer is widely considered the father of English literature. This introduction begins with a review of his life and the cultural milieu of fourteenth-century England and then expands into analyses of such major works as The Parliament of Fowls, Troilus and Criseyde, and, of course, the Canterbury Tales, examining them alongside a selection of lesser known verses. One of the early hurdles faced by students of Chaucer is achieving ease and fluency with Middle English, but Tison Pugh provides a clear and concise pronunciation guide and a glossary to help novice readers navigate Chaucer's literature in its original language. Additional critical apparatus, including a survey of the writer's sources and brief summaries of major plot lines, make An Introduction to Geoffrey Chaucer an indispensable resource for students, teachers, and anyone who has ever wanted to learn more about this crucial figure of English literature.

Old French epic poems, or chansons de geste, are one of the most important traditions of the French Middle Ages. Consisting of approximately 120 poems including the famous Song of Roland, these tremendously popular songs were based on French history but often embellished in fantastical ways and written to be performed by minstrels.With an overview of the principal epic cycles, close readings of six major poems, and a glossary of key terms, Catherine Jones makes the chansons de geste accessible to students and any reader interested in learning more about this lively genre. She also presents an essential survey of traditional scholarship, such as debates about sources and elements of style, and raises intriguing contemporary questions related to alterity, gender, and genre. With its many critical layers, this book is ideal for undergraduates and teachers alike.

William Langland’s allegorical poem Piers Plowman is becoming ever-more popular in medieval English literature courses. But most current introductions focus primarily on the B text, leaving a gap in available resources for the poem’s study. As Piers Plowman continues to gain academic attention in all its three versions (the A, B, and C-texts), teachers and students need a new perspective and new approach to the poem as an evolving whole.This first comprehensive introduction to Langland’s masterful work covers all three iterations and outlines the various changes that occurred between each. Useful for individuals reading any version of Piers Plowman, this engaging guide offers a much-needed navigational summary, a chronology of historic events relevant to the poem, biographical notes about Langland, and keys to characters and proper pronunciation. Calabrese’s definitive and refreshingly lively volume allows readers to navigate this daunting poem and to contextualize it within the literary history of Western culture.

William Langland’s allegorical poem Piers Plowman has found new critical and pedagogic life in the twenty-first century. Engaging with culture, religion, community, work, and the histories of government and popular revolt, the poem exists in three versions: the earliest, short A text (c. 1367-70), the much longer B text (c. 1377–79), and the later revision, the C text (c. 1382-87). Studies have frequently focused on the B text, leaving a gap in available resources for students of the poem. This is the first comprehensive introduction to Langland’s masterful work that covers all three iterations, outlining the various changes that occurred between each. It thoroughly explores the versions in parallel study and offers new perspectives and approaches to the poem as an evolving whole.  Useful for individuals reading any version of Piers Plowman, this engaging guide offers a much-needed navigational summary, a chronology of historic events relevant to the poem, biographical information about Langland and his work in context with his contemporaries, and keys to characters and to proper pronunciation. Michael Calabrese’s definitive and refreshingly lively volume allows readers to navigate the three versions of this daunting poem and to contextualize it within the literary history of Western culture.A volume in the series New Perspectives on Medieval Literature: Authors and Traditions, edited by R. Barton Palmer and Tison Pugh

Combining an accessible approach with innovative scholarship, An Introduction to the Sagas of Icelanders provides up-to-date perspectives on a unique medieval literary genre that has fascinated the English-speaking world for more than two centuries. Carl Phelpstead draws on historical context, contemporary theory, and close reading to deepen our understanding of Icelandic saga narratives about the island's early history.Phelpstead explores the origins and cultural setting of the genre, demonstrating the rich variety of oral and written source traditions that writers drew on to produce the sagas. He provides fresh, theoretically informed discussions of major themes such as national identity, gender and sexuality, and nature and the supernatural, relating the Old Norse-Icelandic texts to questions addressed by postcolonial studies, feminist and queer theory, and ecocriticism. He then presents readings of select individual sagas, pointing out how the genre's various source traditions and thematic concerns interact. Including an overview of the history of English translations that shows how they have been stimulated and shaped by ideas about identity, and featuring a glossary of critical terms, this book is an essential resource for students of the literary form.

This volume immerses readers in a debate tradition that flourished in France during the late Middle Ages, focusing on two works that were both popular and controversial in their time: Le Roman de la Rose by thirteenth-century poets Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun and La Belle Dame sans Mercy by fifteenth-century royal secretary and poet Alain Chartier. This is the first comparative volume on these important works and the discussions they sparked.Engaging with questions of women’s agency, love, marriage, and honor, these two poems prompted responses that circulated via treatises, letters, and sermons among officials, clerics, and poets. Joan McRae provides commentary on the two texts, a timeline and summary of the resulting debates, and biographical sketches of the leading intellectuals who matched wits over different ways of reading the texts, including pioneering writer Christine de Pizan. McRae shows that these works and the debates, read together, consider a range of social issues that raise questions of gender, the place of power and hierarchy in societal relationships, and the responsibility of writers for the effect of their works on readers.An Introduction to Literary Debate in Late Medieval France is a helpful overview of these weighty arguments for both students and scholars. McRae provides a compact, comprehensive, and up-to-date study, spotlighting influential literary expressions that evolved into the “querelle des femmes,” the “woman question,” which in turn paved the way for modern feminism.

Bringing the work of a highly influential medieval French writer to English-speaking audiences for the first timeThis book explores the life and works of Jean Bodel, an influential author who lived in twelfth-century Arras, France. A versatile poet, playwright, and epic writer who established new genres such as fabliaux and the mystery play, Bodel remains relatively unknown to Anglophone audiences.Lynn Ramey offers translations and summaries of works never published before in English while delving into Bodel’s historical and cultural context.After a brief introduction to the poet, Ramey highlights the stimulating and cosmopolitan environment of Arras, considering the influence of the Crusades and social movements in shaping Bodel’s works. Next, Ramey provides an extensive survey of all of Bodel’s known writing across his prolific career by genre, from his most well-known work, The Play of Saint Nicholas (Le Jeu de Saint Nicolas), to his final piece, Farewell (Les Congés), which offers important insight into his diagnosis of leprosy toward the end of his life. Ramey translates several pieces including pastourelles, fabliaux, and selections from the Song of the Saxons (Chanson de Saisnes). The book also includes information on Bodel’s sources, a chronology, and a glossary.With much of the existing scholarship on Bodel only available in French, this book bridges a gap in knowledge of the poet and serves as a useful resource for both students and specialists. An Introduction to Jean Bodel allows a broader audience to engage with the writer’s wide-ranging work and contributions to literary history.A volume in the series New Perspectives on Medieval Literature: Authors and Traditions, edited by R. Barton Palmer and Tison Pugh

Understanding a medieval poetry genre through modern translations, commentary, and the role of performanceMiddle English lyrics are anonymous short poems that were composed between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. They address a range of themes, both secular and religious, and usually emphasize the author’s personal relationship to the subject matter. In this introduction to the genre, William Quinn offers an overview of the large body of work, identifying common features and trends over time and discussing select examples in detail.Quinn argues that Middle English lyrics are best understood when read as emotional performances and guides readers through the poems’ expressions of joy, sorrow, anger, fear, compassion, spiritual devotion, romantic attraction, erotic frustration, and gender-targeted contempt. For the poems he considers in detail, Quinn provides line-for-line modern renditions of the Middle English texts. The book also includes commentaries keyed to the original texts, intended to prompt interpretations and enrich understandings of the lyrics. Quinn concludes by tracing the later development of versification from medieval to Renaissance lyrics, looking at work by Chaucer, Hoccleve, Petrarch, Wyatt, Surrey, and Shakespeare.An Introduction to Middle English Lyrics encourages readers to appreciate this literary genre on its own terms and to reconsider modern ideas of what makes a “good” poem. With a deeper knowledge of how lyrics functioned in their historical settings, this book fosters a reassessment of their significance to the broader history of English poetry.A volume in the series New Perspectives on Medieval Literature: Authors and Traditions, edited by R. Barton Palmer and Tison Pugh