The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature

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David Wallace
Cambridge University Press, Apr 25, 2002 - Literary Criticism - 1043 pages
This was the first full-scale history of medieval English literature for nearly a century. Thirty-three distinguished contributors offer a collaborative account of literature composed or transmitted in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland between the Norman conquest and the death of Henry VIII in 1547. The volume has five sections: 'After the Norman Conquest'; 'Writing in the British Isles'; 'Institutional Productions'; 'After the Black Death' and 'Before the Reformation'. It provides information on a vast range of literary texts and the conditions of their production and reception, which will serve both specialists and general readers, and also contains a chronology, full bibliography and a detailed index. This book offers an extensive and vibrant account of the medieval literatures so drastically reconfigured in Tudor England. It will thus prove essential reading for scholars of the Renaissance as well as medievalists, and for historians as well as literary specialists.
 

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Contents

ANGLONORMAN CULTURES IN ENGLAND 10661460
35
EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH
61
NATIONAL WORLD AND WOMENS HISTORY WRITERS AND READERS OF ENGLISH IN POSTCONQUEST ENGLAND
92
LATINITAS
122
ROMANCE IN ENGLAND 10661400
152
WRITING IN THE BRITISH ISLES
177
Introduction
179
WRITING IN WALES
182
ALLITERATIVE POETRY
488
PIERS PLOWMAN
513
THE MIDDLE ENGLISH MYSTICS
539
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
566
JOHN GOWER
589
MIDDLE ENGLISH LIVES
610
BEFORE THE REFORMATION
635
Introduction
637

WRITING IN IRELAND
208
WRITING IN SCOTLAND 10581560
229
WRITING HISTORY IN ENGLAND
255
LONDON TEXTS AND LITERATE PRACTICE
284
INSTITUTIONAL PRODUCTIONS
311
Introduction
313
MONASTIC PRODUCTIONS
316
THE FRIARS AND MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATURE
349
CLASSROOM AND CONFESSION
376
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE AND LAW
407
VOX POPULI AND THE LITERATURE OF 1381
432
ENGLISHING THE BIBLE 10661549
454
AFTER THE BLACK DEATH
483
Introduction
485
HOCCLEVE LYDGATE AND THE LANCASTRIAN COURT
640
LOLLARDY
662
ROMANCE AFTER 1400
690
WILLIAM CAXTON
720
ENGLISH DRAMA FROM UNGODLY LUDITO SACRED PLAY
739
THE ALLEGORICAL THEATRE MORALITIES INTERLUDES AND PROTESTANT DRAMA
767
THE EXPERIENCE OF EXCLUSION LITERATURE AND POLITICS IN THE REIGNS OF HENRY VII AND HENRY VIII
793
REFORMED LITERATURE AND LITERATURE REFORMED
821
Chronological outline of historical events and texts in Britain 10501550
852
Bibliography
881
Index of manuscripts
991
Index
994
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About the author (2002)

David Wallace is the Judith Rodin Professor of English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Chaucerian Polity: Absolutist Lineages and Associational Forms in England and Italy (1997); Giovanni Boccaccio, Decameron (1991); Chaucer and the early writings of Boccaccio (1985); Bodies and Disciplines: Intersections of Literature and History in Fifteenth-Century England (ed. with Barbara A Hanawalt).

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