Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England

ISBN-13: 9780521868433 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 302 str.

David Matthews; Gordon McMullan

Opis

In English literary and historical studies the border between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, and hence between 'medieval' and 'early modern' studies, has become increasingly permeable. Written by an international group of medievalists and early modernists, the essays in this volume examine the ways in which medieval culture was read and reconstructed by writers, editors and scholars in early modern England. It also addresses the reciprocal process: the way in which early modern England, while apparently suppressing the medieval past, was in fact shaped and constructed by it, albeit in ways that early modern thinkers had an interest in suppressing. The book deals with this process as it is played out not only in literature but also in visual culture - for example in mapping - and in material culture - as in the physical destruction of the medieval past in the early modern English landscape.

Recenzje

"Scanlon, Simpson, and the essays in the first group discussed above are all clearly attuned to recent debates, whereas the essays by Matthews and Trigg, among others in the second and third groups described here, seem to adhere to an older version of ‘‘medievalism,’’ in which the focus is less on an interchange of modes of thinking than the early modern period’s use of the medieval for its own ends. Nevertheless, the essays here offer much material for reflection and chart some new lines of inquiry."
-Katherine Little, Fordham University

Spis treści

List of illustrations; Notes on contributors; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction: reading the medieval in early modern England David Matthews and Gordon McMullan; Part I. Period: 1. Diachronic history and the shortcomings of Medieval Studies James Simpson; 2. Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay and the rhetoric of temporality Deanne Williams; Part II. Text: 3. Langland, apocalypse and the early modern editor Larry Scanlon; 4. Public ambition, private desire and the last Tudor Chaucer David Matthews; Part III. Nation: 5. The vulgar history of the Order of the Garter Stephanie Trigg; 6. Myths of origin and the struggle over nationhood in medieval and early modern England Anke Bernau; 7. The colonisation of early Britain on the Jacobean stage Gordon McMullan; Part IV. Geography: 8. Tamburlaine, sacred space and the heritage of medieval cartography Bernhard Klein; 9. Leland's Itinerary and the remains of the medieval past Jennifer Summit; Part V. Reformation: 10. John Bale and reconfiguring the 'medieval' in Reformation England Cathy Shrank; 11. Medieval penance, Reformation repentance and Measure for Measure Sarah Beckwith; 12. Medieval poetics and Protestant Magdalenes Patricia Badir; Afterword David Wallace; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.