Continuum The Medieval British Literature Handbook (Literature & Culture Handbooks)

This is a one-stop resource for courses in medieval literature, providing students with a comprehensive guide to the historical and cultural context; major texts and movements; reading primary and critical texts; key critics, concepts and topics; and, major critical approaches and directions of new research. "The Medieval British Literature Handbook" is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to literature and culture in the middle ages, focusing particularly on Middle English and the period from 1300-1500. It offers a one-stop resource for students with the essential information and guidance needed at the beginning of a course through to developing more advanced knowledge and skills.It includes: introductions to authors, texts and contexts; guides to key critics, concepts and topics; an overview of major critical approaches, changes in the canon and directions of current and future research; case studies in reading primary and secondary texts; and, annotated further reading (including websites), timeline and a glossary of critical terms. Written in clear language by leading academics, it is an indispensable starting point for anyone beginning their study of medieval literature. "Literature and Culture Handbooks" are an innovative series of guides to major periods, topics and authors in British and American literature and culture. Designed to provide a comprehensive, one-stop resource for literature students, each handbook provides the essential information and guidance needed from the beginning of a course through to developing more advanced knowledge and skills. Review "Kline has assembled an exciting array of both new voices and respected eminent scholars in this thought-provoking and sophisticated though accessible gateway to studying medieval British literature. Destined to appeal to students of varying levels, as well as to their professors, the volume demonstrates that there is no monolithic way of reading and interpreting the literature of late medieval Britain. Students are ably led by the energetic and engaged essayists in this unique volume to think in complex ways about theory and medieval literature. The volume invites us to understand both the cultural milieu and the history of its criticism to apprehend medieval literature with some nuance. By providing both vital historical and cultural contexts and explaining the range of current and past critical ways of approaching medieval texts, as well as identifying the major voices in each critical position, Kline and his contributors have offered a clear and valuable guide to how we talk about medieval literature, what questions we might ask, and why. It is at once a handbook of literary theory, its development, and its relationship to medieval literature, and a general literary history of medieval British literature. With some key critical positions, post-colonial theory, for example, discussed from the perspective of several contributors, this cornucopeia of perspectives enriches the texts under consideration and their modern readers. The various chapters accumulate in a deep and satisfying non-linear analysis of how medieval literature is framed and interpreted. The incisive chapter by John Ganim alone justifies having the entire book. This well-conceived work is bound to enhance any medieval British literature course."- Professor Christine M. Rose, Portland State University, USA"Rivalling a medieval summa in its encyclopaedic scope and glittering specificity, The Medieval British Literature Handbook presents Middle English literature in all of its variegated, hybrid, and genre-bending allure. Just as valuably, from its case studies in criticism to its suggested "Web Quests" for students, the Handbook documents the imaginative and highly interdisciplinary scholarship that Middle English literature has inspired and continues to generate, even as it situates the excitement of medieval studies today along a shifting and permeable