Peter Brown 
A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture, c.1350 – c.1500 

A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture,
c.1350-c.1500 challenges readers to think beyond a narrowly
defined canon and conventional disciplinary boundaries.

A ground-breaking collection of newly-commissioned essays on
medieval literature and culture.

* Encourages students to think beyond a narrowly defined canon
and conventional disciplinary boundaries.

* Reflects the erosion of the traditional, rigid boundary between
medieval and early modern literature.

* Stresses the importance of constructing contexts for reading
literature.

* Explores the extent to which medieval literature is in dialogue
with other cultural products, including the literature of other
countries, manuscripts and religion.

* Includes close readings of frequently-studied texts, including
texts by Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain poet, and Hoccleve.

* Confronts some of the controversies that exercise students of
medieval literature, such as those connected with literary theory,
love, and chivalry and war.

قائمة المحتويات

List of Illustrations ix

Notes on Contributors x

Acknowledgements xv

Abbreviations xvi

Introduction 1

PART I Overviews 7

1. Critical Approaches 9

David Raybin

2. English Society in the Later Middle Ages: Deference, Ambition
and Conflict 25

S. H. Rigby

3. Religious Authority and Dissent 40

Mishtooni Bose

4. City and Country, Wealth and Labour 56

Sarah Rees Jones

5. Women’s Voices and Roles 74

Carol M. Meale

PART II The Production and Reception of Texts
91

6. Manuscripts and Readers 93

A. S. G. Edwards

7. From Manuscript to Modern Text 107

Julia Boffey

8. Translation and Society 123

Catherine Batt

PART III Language and Literature 141

9. The Languages of Medieval Britain 143

Laura Wright

10. The Forms of Speech 159

Donka Minkova

11. The Forms of Verse 176

Donka Minkova

PART IV Encounters with Other Cultures 197

12. England and France 199

Ardis Butterfi eld

13. Britain and Italy: Trade, Travel, Translation 215

Nick Havely

14. England’s Antiquities: Middle English Literature and the
Classical Past 231

Christopher Baswell

15. Jews, Saracens, ‘Black Men’, Tartars: England in a World of
Racial Difference 247

Geraldine Heng

PART V Special Themes 271

16. War and Chivalry 273

Richard W. Kaeuper and Montgomery Bohna

17. Literature and Law 292

Richard Firth Green

18. Images 307

Peter Brown

19. Love 322

Barry Windeatt

PART VI Genres 339

20. Middle English Romance 341

Thomas Hahn and Dana M. Symons

21. Writing Nation: Shaping Identity in Medieval Historical
Narratives 358

Raluca L. Radulescu

22. Dream Poems 374

Helen Phillips

23. Lyric 387

Rosemary Greentree

24. Literature of Religious Instruction 406

E. A. Jones

25. Mystical and Devotional Literature 423

Denise N. Baker

26. Accounts of Lives 437

Kathleen Ashley

27. Medieval English Theatre: Codes and Genres 454

Meg Twycross

28. Morality and Interlude Drama 473

Darryll Grantley

PART VII Readings 489

29. York Mystery Plays 491

Pamela King

30. The Book of Margery Kempe 507

Ruth Evans

31. Julian of Norwich 522

Santha Bhattacharji

32. Piers Plowman 537

Stephen Kelly

33. Subjectivity and Ideology in the Canterbury Tales
554

Mark Miller

34. John Gower and John Lydgate: Forms and Norms of Rhetorical
Culture 569

J. Allan Mitchell

35. Thomas Hoccleve, La Male Regle 585

Nicholas Perkins

36. Discipline and Relaxation in the Poetry of Robert Henryson
604

R. James Goldstein

37. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 619

Kevin Gustafson

38. Blood and Love in Malory’s Morte Darthur 634

Catherine La Farge

Index 649

عن المؤلف

Peter Brown is Professor of Medieval English Literature at the University of Kent. His book publications include A Companion to Chaucer (Wiley-Blackwell, 2000), Reading Dreams: The Interpretation of Dreams from Chaucer to Shakespeare (1999), Chaucer at Work: The Making of the Canterbury Tales (1994) and, with Andrew Butcher, The Age of Saturn: Literature and History in the Canterbury Tales (1991).