A Handbook of Middle English Studies

A Handbook to Middle English Studies presents a series of original essays that explore and analyze the relationship between critical theory and late medieval literature. Featuring contributions from a variety of literary experts and emerging scholars, readings demonstrate the vitality and rich diversity of medieval literary studies. Essays on well–known but still crucial issues such as authorship, gender, and race are included, as well as readings that examine areas only recently coming under critical scrutiny such as globalization, the environment, and animality. A diverse selection of well–known works and more obscure medieval texts are considered, including the poetry of Chaucer, The Book of Margery Kempe , Piers Plowman , Mandeville’s Travels , and various romances of the period. Collectively, the readings demonstrates that the manuscript culture of late medieval literature raises a number of key theoretical issues, and  build upon important recent work revealing how modern critical theory is often rooted in medieval scholarship.

Acknowledgments xi Notes on Contributors xiii Abbreviations xvii List of Figures xix Introduction 1 Marion Turner Part 1: Selfhood and Community 13 1 Imagination 15 Aranye Fradenburg 2 Memory 33 Anke Bernau 3 Desire 49 Elizabeth Scala 4 Gender 63 Nicola McDonald 5 Sexuality 77 Glenn Burger and Steven F. Kruger 6 Public Interiorities 93 David Lawton 7 Race 109 Jeffrey Jerome Cohen 8 Animality 123 Susan Crane Part 2: Constructing Texts, Constructing Textual History 135 9 Authorship 137 Vincent Gillespie 10 Audience 155 Joyce Coleman 11 Manuscript 171 Alexandra Gillespie 12 Material Culture 187 Jessica Brantley 13 Genre 207 Julie Orlemanski 14 Aesthetics 223 Maura Nolan 15 Canon Formation 239 Thomas A. Prendergast 16 Periodization 253 David Matthews Part 3: Politics and Places 267 17 Sovereignty 269 Robert Mills 18 Class 285 Isabel Davis 19 Church 299 Laura Varnam 20 City 315 Jonathan Hsy 21 Margins 331 Corinne Saunders 22 Ecology 347 Carolyn Dinshaw 23 Nation 363 Kathy Lavezzo 24 Language 379 Laura Ashe 25 Postcolonialism 397 John M. Ganim 26 A Global Middle Ages 413 Geraldine Heng Index 431

Marion Turner is a Tutorial Fellow in English literature at Jesus College, University of Oxford. She is the author of Chaucerian Conflict: Languages of Antagonism in Late Fourteenth–Century London (2007), and numerous articles on late–medieval literature.