A Companion to the Gawain-Poet a Companion to the Gawain-Poet a Companion to the Gawain-Poet (Arthurian Studies) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 085991433X ISBN 13: 9780859914338

Publisher: D.S.Brewer, 1997

Synopsis

The essays collected here on the Gawain-Poet offer stimulating introductions to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness and Patience, providing both information and original analysis. Topics include theories of authorship; the historical and social background to the poems, with individual sections on particularly important features within them; gender roles in the poems; the manuscript itself; the metre, vocabulary and dialect of the poems; and their sources. A section devoted to Sir Gawain investigates the ideas of courtesy and chivalry found within it, and explores some of its later adaptations from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. A full bibliography completes the volume.

DEREK BREWER was Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge; JONATHAN GIBSON has worked as a lecturer in the Universities of Exeter and Durham.

Contributors: DEREK BREWER, MALCOLM ANDREW, A.C. SPEARING, JANE GILBERT, MICHAEL J. BENNETT, DAVID AERS, RALPH ELLIOTT, MICHAEL THOMPSON, FELICITY RIDDY, ANNE ROONEY, MICHAEL LACY, A.S.G. EDWARDS, H.N. DUGGAN, ELISABETH BREWER, RICHARD NEWHAUSER, HELEN COOPER, NICHOLAS WATSON, PRISCILLA MARTIN, NICK DAVIS, DEREK PEARSALL, GILLIAN ROGERS, BARRY WINDEATT, DAVID J. WILLIAMS

About this title

Review:

This superb collection of introductory essays by leading scholars and critics provides an excellent one-volume guide to the works of the anonymous Gawain-poet. CHOICE

Impressive collection of essays... will surely become a key starting point for any new work on the poet and poems. SPECULUM

A boon companion, an essential guide, for those setting out to explore the world of this fascinating poet. ARTHURIANA

All students and scholars of the Middle English Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain will want to consult this valuable new compendium. ANGLIA

From the Back Cover:

This collection of original essays by an international group of distinguished medievalists provides a comprehensive introduction to the Morte Darthur, the great work of Sir Thomas Malory, which will be indispensable for both students and scholars. As well as essays on the eight tales which make up the Morte Darthur, these are studies of the relationship between the Winchester manuscript and Caxton's and later editions; the political and social context in which Malory wrote; his style and sources; and his treatment of two key concepts in Arthurian literature, chivalry and the representation of women. The volume also includes a brief biography of Malory with a list of the historical records relating to him and his family. It ends with a discussion of the reception of the Morte Darthur from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, and a select bibliography.

About this edition

• Publisher: D.S.Brewer
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 085991433X
• ISBN 13: 9780859914338
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 456
• Editor: Brewer Derek, Gibson Jonathan