Romance Rewritten
The Evolution of Middle English Romance. A Tribute to Helen Cooper
Published on 19. October 2018
Book
Hardback
310 pages
978-1-84384-509-6 (ISBN)
Description
New approaches to the everlasting malleability and transformation of medieval romance.
The essays here reconsider the protean nature of Middle English romance. The contributors examine both the cultural unity of romance and its many variations, reiterations and reimaginings, including its contexts and engagements with other discourses and forms, as they were "rewritten" during the Middle Ages and beyond. Ranging across popular, anonymous English and courtly romances, and taking in the works of Chaucer and Arthurian romance (rarely treated together), in connection with continental sources and analogues, the chapters probe this fluid and creative genre to ask just how comfortable, and how flexible, are its nature and aims? How were Middle English romances rewritten toaccommodate contemporary concerns and generic expectations? What can attention to narrative techniques and conventional gestures reveal about the reassurances romances offer, or the questions they ask? How do romances' central concerns with secular ideals and conduct intersect with spiritual priorities? And how are romances transformed or received in later periods? The volume is also a tribute to the significance and influence of the work of Professor Helen Cooper on romance.
Elizabeth Archibald is Professor of English Studies at Durham University; Megan G. Leitch is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University; Corinne Saunders is Professor of English andCo-Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham University.
Contributors: Elizabeth Archibald, Julia Boffey, Christopher Cannon, Neil Cartlidge, Miriam Edlich-Muth, A.S.G. Edwards, Marcel Elias, Megan Leitch, Andrew Lynch, Jill Mann, Marco Nievergelt, Ad Putter, Corinne Saunders, Barry Windeatt, R.F. Yeager
The essays here reconsider the protean nature of Middle English romance. The contributors examine both the cultural unity of romance and its many variations, reiterations and reimaginings, including its contexts and engagements with other discourses and forms, as they were "rewritten" during the Middle Ages and beyond. Ranging across popular, anonymous English and courtly romances, and taking in the works of Chaucer and Arthurian romance (rarely treated together), in connection with continental sources and analogues, the chapters probe this fluid and creative genre to ask just how comfortable, and how flexible, are its nature and aims? How were Middle English romances rewritten toaccommodate contemporary concerns and generic expectations? What can attention to narrative techniques and conventional gestures reveal about the reassurances romances offer, or the questions they ask? How do romances' central concerns with secular ideals and conduct intersect with spiritual priorities? And how are romances transformed or received in later periods? The volume is also a tribute to the significance and influence of the work of Professor Helen Cooper on romance.
Elizabeth Archibald is Professor of English Studies at Durham University; Megan G. Leitch is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University; Corinne Saunders is Professor of English andCo-Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham University.
Contributors: Elizabeth Archibald, Julia Boffey, Christopher Cannon, Neil Cartlidge, Miriam Edlich-Muth, A.S.G. Edwards, Marcel Elias, Megan Leitch, Andrew Lynch, Jill Mann, Marco Nievergelt, Ad Putter, Corinne Saunders, Barry Windeatt, R.F. Yeager
Reviews / Votes
With its variously sophisticated and insightful analyses [this collection] makes a worthy and welcome contribution. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES * There is not a single weak link in this excellent collection. All contributions share an interest in romance, generic transformation, and rewriting more broadly, while displaying a rich diversity of approaches and preoccupations. Romance Rewritten is easy to recommend not only to scholars of romance, but to students of Chaucer, Gower, Malory, sixteenth-century printing, or nineteenth-century medievalism as well. * STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER * This edited collection is a well-rounded contribution to the field of medieval literary studies and o?ers some interesting finds and analyses of works that have been upheld as the best of medieval literature. * PARERGON * This consistently engaging collection is a fitting and deserved tribute to Helen Cooper, confirming the importance and sustained influence of her work. It offers a variety of detailed analyses that will surely be essential reading for specialists, while still remaining accessible to students. * ANGLIA * These scholars, who share with Helen Cooper an unflagging interest in the genre, have produced an outstanding volume of essays, each of which probes facets of its protean and, it must be stressed, inexhaustible nature. * ARCHIV * The thirteen essays in this volume are testament to the range and depth of her [Helen Cooper's] contributions to the field. Collectively, the chapters highlight the multifarious connections between romances, the "family resemblances" that link texts, and the sociopolitical forces that interact with romance impulses to form innovative narratives and critical commentaries on their historical moment, all the while confronting readers with the nebulousness of the very definition of romance. * Speculum *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
634 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84384-509-6 (9781843845096)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
ELIZABETH ARCHIBALD is Professor of English Studies at Durham University, and Principal of St Cuthbert's Society. MEGAN G. LEITCH is the Professor and Chair of Medieval English Literature and Culture at the University of Groningen. Corinne Saunders is Professor of Medieval Literature at the Department of English Studies, University of Durham. A. S. G. Edwards is Honorary Professor of Medieval Manuscripts at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Ad Putter is Professor of Medieval English at the University of Bristol, UK, co-director of Bristol's Centre for Medieval Studies, and Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author and editor of numerous books, with a particular interest in Medieval Romance texts and the works of the Gawain poet. He is currently leading a research project on the literary heritage of Anglo-Dutch relations. Corinne Saunders is Professor of Medieval Literature at the Department of English Studies, University of Durham. ELIZABETH ARCHIBALD is Professor of English Studies at Durham University, and Principal of St Cuthbert's Society. JULIA BOFFEY is Professor of Medieval Studies in the Department of English at Queen Mary University of London. NEIL CARTLIDGE is Professor in the Department of English Studies at the University of Durham, UK. R.F. YEAGER is Emeritus Professor of English Literature and Language, University of West Florida.
Content
Introduction. Middle English Romance: The Motifs and the Critics -
Medieval Romance Mischief - Neil Cartlidge
Rewriting Chivalric Encounters: Cultural Anxieties and Social Critique in the Fourteenth Century - Marcel Elias
Malory's Comedy - Christopher Cannon
Beginning with the Ending: Narrative Techniques and their Significance in Chaucer's Knight's Tale - Jill Mann
The Riddle of 'Apollonius': 'A Bok for King Richardes Sake' - Robert F. Yeager
Malory and the Post-Vulgate Cycle - Elizabeth Archibald
Towards a Gestural Lexicon of Medieval English Romance - Barry A Windeatt
Giving Freely in Sir Cleges: the Economy of Salvation and the Gift of Romance - Marco Nievergelt
From Magic to Miracle: Reframing Chevalere Assigne - Miriam Edlich-Muth
Lifting the Veil: Voices, Visions and Destiny in Malory's Morte Darthur - Corinne Saunders
The Intelligence of The Court of Love - Ad Putter
The Squire of Low Degree and the Penumbra of Romance Narrative in the Early Sixteenth Century - Julia Boffey
The Squire of Low Degree and the Penumbra of Romance Narrative in the Early Sixteenth Century - A S G Edwards
Contested Chivalry: Youth at War in Walter Scott and Charlotte M. Yonge - Andrew Lynch
Medieval Romance Mischief - Neil Cartlidge
Rewriting Chivalric Encounters: Cultural Anxieties and Social Critique in the Fourteenth Century - Marcel Elias
Malory's Comedy - Christopher Cannon
Beginning with the Ending: Narrative Techniques and their Significance in Chaucer's Knight's Tale - Jill Mann
The Riddle of 'Apollonius': 'A Bok for King Richardes Sake' - Robert F. Yeager
Malory and the Post-Vulgate Cycle - Elizabeth Archibald
Towards a Gestural Lexicon of Medieval English Romance - Barry A Windeatt
Giving Freely in Sir Cleges: the Economy of Salvation and the Gift of Romance - Marco Nievergelt
From Magic to Miracle: Reframing Chevalere Assigne - Miriam Edlich-Muth
Lifting the Veil: Voices, Visions and Destiny in Malory's Morte Darthur - Corinne Saunders
The Intelligence of The Court of Love - Ad Putter
The Squire of Low Degree and the Penumbra of Romance Narrative in the Early Sixteenth Century - Julia Boffey
The Squire of Low Degree and the Penumbra of Romance Narrative in the Early Sixteenth Century - A S G Edwards
Contested Chivalry: Youth at War in Walter Scott and Charlotte M. Yonge - Andrew Lynch