Crux and Controversy in Middle English Textual Criticism

by Alastair J. Minnis (Editor)

Recent developments in literary theory have subjected traditionalnotions of the status of author, text and readers to intensive scrutiny.These concerns have major implications for scholars working on thetheory of editing texts, especially in considering the question ofwhich version of a text (if more than one survives) should be published,and how other versions, and other evidence, should be taken into account.
The enterprise of editing Middle English texts - works produced before printing - raises and focuses these issues in an especially interesting form. In particular, controversy has raged about how best to resolve the textual problems presented by Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales . This volumeaddresses many of the issues which face the editors of Middle English texts today.

DEREK PEARSALL, T.W. MACHAN, NORMAN BLAKE, NICHOLAS JACOBS, S.S. HUSSEY, RALPH HANNA III, CHARLOTTE BREWER, ANNE HUDSON.

149 pages, Hardcover

First published June 11, 1992

About the author

Alastair J, Minnis, born in 1948, is a Northern Irish literary critic and historian of ideas who has written extensively about medieval literature, and contributed substantially to the study of late-medieval theology and philosophy.

Minnis has held the post of the Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English at Yale University since 2008.

"Characteristically, my research methodology brings together reading strategies from literary criticism and the history of ideas, and an interest in medieval philosophy and theology has informed much of my work. My latest monograph is From Eden to Eternity: Creations of Paradise in the Later Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)"