Book Description

The essays in this volume consider a range of poetic texts written in England between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, with the exception of works by Chaucer, and represent some of the exciting new developments in medieval studies over the last twenty years. The collection explores and interrogates the established canon of Middle English poetry and includes several studies of two major poems, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Piers Plowman, and essays on some less well-known works, including Havelok the Dane, The Owl and the Nightingale and The Flower and the Leaf. In a field that has been dominated by historical scholarship and conservative new criticism, Medieval English Poetry brings together some of the most controversial work currently being done in Middle English studies; this collection reveals the strength and depth of this research in feminist, Marxist, historicist, reader-response and deconstructionist method. It includes contributions from David Aers, Sheila Delany, Anne Middleton, and Lee Patterson. Stephanie Trigg's illuminating introduction examines some of the patterns that have emerged in the criticism of medieval literature this century, and pays particular attention to our constructions and definitions of the 'medieval'. The range of material covered, together with the detailed headnotes to each of the thirteen essays and the guide to further reading, make this book essential reading for all undergraduate and postgraduate students of Medieval English Literature.