E. Scala & Kenneth A. Loparo 
The Post-Historical Middle Ages 

This collection of original essays repositions medieval literary studies after an era of historicism. Analyzing the legacy of Marxist and materialist theory on medieval literary criticism, the collection offers new ways of reading texts historically. Drawing upon aesthetic, ethical, and cultural vantage points and methods, these essays demonstrate that a variety of approaches and theories are ‘historical’ and can change what it means to historicize medieval literature. By defining our post-historical moment in medieval English literary studies in terms of new possibilities, this collection will have broad appeal to those interested in the English Middle Ages, history, culture, and reading itself.

Table of Content

Introduction: ‘What Was Historicism?’; S.Federico & E.Scala ‘Historicism After Biography: The Life of Roger de Braynton, 1300-1350’; D.Birkholz ‘Time Out of Memory: The Medieval Prehistoric’; J.J.Cohen ‘Naked Chaucer: Neighborliness, Creatureliness, Untimeliness’; G.Edmondson ‘Feminist Historicism’; S.Federico ‘Enjoying the Signifier’; A.Fradenburg ‘Ethics and Historical Alterity: The Guilty Pleasures of the Middle English ‘Floris and Blauncheflour’; P.C.Ingham ‘Losing Literary History: English Women’s Religious Translations across the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries’; C.Sanok ‘Claiming and Reclaiming History’; E.Scala ‘Past/Present: The Ends of Criticism after Historicism’; R.Stein ‘Medievalist Desires: Who Wants to Know about the Middle Ages?’; S.Trigg & T.Prendergast Coda: ‘Medieval English Studies After History’; M.Nolan

About the author

ELIZABETH SCALA is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.
SYLVIA FEDERICO is Assistant Professor of English at Bates College, USA.