The Faerie Queene and Middle English romance
Subtitle: the matter of just memory
By: Andrew King.
Series: Oxford English monographs.
Publisher: Clarendon
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 246
Subjects: Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599; Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Knowledge -- Literature; English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- History and criticism; Medievalism -- England -- History -- 16th century; Romances, English -- History and criticism; Intertextuality
Description: "This book offers the first comprehensive study of the impact of Middle English romance on The Faerie Queene. It employs the concept of memory, in which both Middle English romance writers and Spenser show specific interest, to build a sense of the thematic, generic, and cultural complexity of the native romance tradition. The memorial character of Middle English romance resides in its intertexuality and its frequent presentation of its narrative events as historical and consequently the basis for a favourable sense of local or even national identity. Spenser's memories of native romance involve a more troubled engagement with that tradition of providential national history as well as an endeavour to see in pre-Reformation romance a prophetic and objective authority for Protestant belief."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [214]-242) and index.