Biblical Paradigms in Medieval English Literature: From Cędmon to Malory (Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture) - Softcover

Book 1 of 21: Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture

Besserman, Lawrence

 
9780415744225: Biblical Paradigms in Medieval English Literature: From Cędmon to Malory (Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0415744229 ISBN 13: 9780415744225
Publisher: Routledge, 2013

Synopsis

This book examines the intricate and unusual relationship between the sacred and secular spheres of English medieval culture, positing that the assimilation of sacred and secular motifs could be in either direction, or even in both directions. That is, medieval English writers could appropriate biblical paradigms to express secular themes, and vice versa. Codicological, psychoanalytic, feminist, and new historicist insights inform readings of Beowulf, Middle English lyric poetry, the Gawain-poet, Chaucer, and Malory, among others. Besserman elucidates the structural and thematic complexity of the integration of biblical and biblically derived sacred diction, imagery, character types, and themes in the works under consideration, identifying within them new biblical sources and analogues and providing fresh insights into the contextual meaning and significance of the biblical paradigms they deploy. This book highlights the shaping influence of biblical and biblically derived sacred paradigms on exemplary literature produced in the middle Ages.

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About the Author

Lawrence Besserman is Professor of English, emeritus, at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; he has also taught at Columbia, Harvard, and NYU. Among his previously published books are The Legend of Job in the Middle Ages, (Harvard, 1979), Chaucer and the Bible (Garland, 1988), and Chaucer’s Biblical Poetics (Univ. of Oklahoma, 1998). He has edited two collections of essays: The Challenge of Periodization: Old Paradigms and New Perspectives (Garland, 1996) and Sacred and Secular in Medieval and Early modern Cultures: New Essays (Macmillan-Palgrave, 2006).

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Publisher
Routledge
Publication date
2013
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0415744229
ISBN 13 
9780415744225
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
236

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780415897945: Biblical Paradigms in Medieval English Literature: From Cędmon to Malory (Routledge Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0415897947 ISBN 13:  9780415897945
Publisher: Routledge, 2011
Hardcover