A Companion to Romance: From Classical to Contemporary

by Corinne J. Saunders (Editor)

Romance is a varied and fluid literary genre, notoriously difficult to define. This groundbreaking "Companion" surveys the many permutations of romance throughout the ages.
Considers the literary and historical development of the romance genre from its classical origins to the present day
Incorporates discussion of the changing readership of romance and of romance's special relation to women readers
Comprises 30 essays written by leading authorities on different periods and sub-genres
Challenges the idea that the appeal of romance is exclusively escapist
Draws on a wide range of specific and influential literary examples

584 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Corinne Saunders is Professor in the Department of English Studies. She specialises in medieval literature and the history of ideas, and has particular interests in romance writing. She is also interested in gender studies and the history of medicine. She has recently published a monograph, Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval Romance (2010), for which she was awarded AHRC-funded additional leave and a Leverhulme Research Fellowship. She is the author of The Forest of Medieval Romance (1993), Rape and Ravishment in the Literature of Medieval England (2001), and over thirty essays and articles on a wide range of literary and cultural topics. She has edited a Blackwell Critical Guide to Chaucer (2001); A Blackwell Companion to Romance: from Classical to Contemporary (2004); Cultural Encounters in Medieval Romance (2005); A Concise Companion to Chaucer (2006); and (with Françoise le Saux and Neil Thomas) Writing War: Medieval Literary Responses (2004); (with Jane Macnaughton), Madness and Creativity in Literature and Culture (2005); (with David Fuller) Pearl: a Modernised Version by Victor Watts (2005); (with Ulrika Maude and Jane Macnaughton), The Body and the Arts (2009). Her edited collection, A Blackwell Companion to Medieval Poetry, was published in March 2010. She is the English editor of the international journal of medieval studies, Medium Ævum; and editor in overall charge of Medieval Studies (1100-1500) for the major online resource, The Literary Encyclopedia. She is the Director of Durham University's Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and Associate Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities, funded by the Wellcome Trust. She has also co-organised two Public Lecture Series in the University, ‘Madness and Creativity: The Mind, Medicine and Literature’, and ‘Flesh and Blood: The Body and the Arts’. She teaches across the range of Old and Middle English language and literature, as well as History of the English Language, Old French, and some Renaissance topics, at both BA and MA level. She currently supervises a number of PhD students working on later medieval literary topics, and welcomes enquiries from postgraduate applicants in these areas.