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.
General introduction David Wallace; Part I. After the Norman Conquest: Introduction David Wallace; 1. Old English and its afterlife Seth Lerer; 2. Anglo-Norman cultures in England,1066-1460 Susan Crane; 3. Early Middle English Thomas Hahn; 4. National, world, and women's history writers and readers in post-Conquest England Lesley Johnson and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne; 5. Latinitas Christopher Baswell; 6. Romance in England 1066-1400 Rosalind Field; Part II. Writing in the British Isles: Introduction David Wallace; 7. Writing in Wales Brynley F. Roberts; 8. Writing in Ireland Terence Dolan; 9. Writing in Scotland R. James Goldstein; 10. Writing history in England Andrew Galloway; 11. London texts and literate practice Sheila Lindenbaum; Part III. Institutional Productions: Introduction David Wallace; 12. Monastic productions Christopher Cannon; 13. The friars and medieval English literature John V. Fleming; 14. Classroom and confession Marjorie Curry Woods and Rita Copeland; 15. Literature and the law Richard Firth Green; 16. 'Vox Populi' and the literature of 1381 David Aers; 17. Englishing the Bible 1066-1549 David Lawton; Part IV. After the Black Death: Introduction David Wallace; 18. Alliterative poetry Ralph Hanna; 19. Piers Plowman Kathryn Kerby-Fulton; 20. The Middle English mystics Nicholas Watson; 21. Geoffrey Chaucer Glending Olson; 22. John Gower Winthrop Wetherbee; 23. Middle English lives Julia Boffey; Part V. Before the Reformation: Introduction David Wallace; 24. Hoccleve, Lydgate, and the Lancastrian Court Paul Strohm; 25. Lollardy Steven Justice; 26. Romance after 1400 Helen Cooper; 27. William Caxton Seth Lerer; 28. English drama from Ungodly Ludi to Sacred Play Lawrence M. Clopper; 29. The allegorical theatre: moralities, interludes, and Protestant drama John Watkins; 30. Literature and politics in the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII Colin Burrow; 31. Reformed literature and literature reformed Brian Cummings; Chronologies; Bibliography; Index.
