Medieval Writers and their Work: Middle English Literature 1100-1500In an updated edition of his hugely successful student introduction to English literature from 1100 to 1500, J. A. Burrow takes account of scholarly developments in the the field, most notably devoting a final chapter to the impact of historicism on medieval studies. Full of information and stimulating ideas, and a pleasure to read, Burrow's book deals with circumstances of composition and reception, the main genres, 'modes of meaning' (allegory etc.), and medieval literature's afterlife in modern times. It shows that the literature of authors such as Chaucer, Gower, and Langland is more readily accessible than usually imagined, and well worth reading too. By placing medieval writers in their historical context - the four centuries between the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance - Professor Burrow explains not only how they wrote, but why. |
Contents
| 1 | |
2 Writers audiences and readers | 25 |
3 Major genres | 59 |
4 Modes of meaning | 90 |
5 The afterlife of Middle English literature | 125 |
Other editions - View all
Medieval Writers and Their Work: Middle English Literature 1100-1500 J. A. Burrow Limited preview - 2008 |
Medieval Writers and their Work: Middle English Literature 1100-1500 J. A. Burrow Limited preview - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
A. C. Cawley allegory alliterative verse Ancrene Wisse Anglo-Saxon Arthur audience Boccaccio Brut Cambridge Canterbury Canterbury Tales chanson de femme Chapter character characteristic Chaucer Chaucer and Gower Chrétien de Troyes Christ Classical Comedy Confessio Amantis Conscience courtly criticism Dante distinction EETS England English literature English poetry example exempla exemplary exemplum fabliau fact fiction fictive formal French Friar Gawain-poet genre Green Knight Havelok Hoccleve imitation instance John John Gower kind King Langland language Latin LaZamon literary London manuscript Medieval English medieval writers Middle Ages Middle English Middle English literature Middle English period Middle English writers modern readers narrative Nightingale Old English Oxford passage Patience Pearl personification Piers Plowman poem poet poetic printing Prologue prose Religious Lyric represent rhyme romance says scribes sense Sir Gawain sort speaks story Tale texts Thomas tradition translation treatise Troilus truth twelfth century University Press vernacular words writing