London literature, 1300-1380
By: Ralph Hanna.
Series: Cambridge studies in medieval literature
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 359
Subjects: English literature -- England -- London -- History and criticism; English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- History and criticism; Authors, English -- Homes and haunts -- England -- London; London (England) -- Intellectual life -- To 1500; London (England) -- In literature
Description: "English literary culture in the fourteenth century was vibrant and expanding. Its focus, however, was still strongly local, not national. This study examines the literary production from the capital before, during, and after the time of the Black Death. In this major contribution to the field, Ralph Hanna charts the development and the generic and linguistic features particular to London writing. He uncovers the interactions between texts and authors across a range of languages and genres: not just Middle English, but Anglo-Norman and Latin; not just romance, but also law, history and biblical commentary. Hanna emphasises the uneasy boundaries legal thought and discourse shared with historical and 'romance' thinking, and shows how the technique of romance, Latin writing associated with administrative culture, and biblical interests underwrote the great pre-Chaucerian London poem, William Langland's Piers Plowman."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 314-343) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: English vernacular culture in London before 1380: the evidence; title: The 'old' law; title: Reading romance in London: the Auchinleck manuscript and Laud misc. 622; title: Pepys 2498: Anglo-Norman audiences and London biblical texts; title: Anglo-Norman's imagined end; title: 'Ledeþ hire to Londoun þere lawe is yshewed': Piers Plowman B, London, 1377.