Chaucer's England: Literature in Historical Context

Medieval Cultures #4

by Barbara A. Hanawalt (Editor), David John Wallace (Contributor)

Chaucer's England presents new interpretations of late fourteenth-century English society through a unique combination of historical inquiry and literary analysis. Beginning with the turbulent reign of Richard I and Bolingbroke's coup, the contributors look at organized crime, illiteracy, patronage, the influence Richard might have had personally over the remarkable literary production of the period, the concepts of gentility that shaped Chaucer's own thinking, the pervasive influence of hunting on medieval literature, the role London played as the center of both the court and the literary world, and more.
Contributors to the volume
Caroline Barron, Royal Holloway and Bedford College
Michael Bennett, University of Tasmania
Lawrence Clopper, Indiana University
Susan Crane, Rutgers University
Richard Firth Green, University of Western Ontario
Barbara Hanawalt, University of Minnesota
Nicholas Orme, University of Exeter
Nigel Saul, Royal Holloway and Bedford College
Paul Strohm, Indiana University
David Wallace, University of Minnesota

Genres: Literary Criticism

240 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1992

About the author

A specialist in medieval English social history, Barbara Hanawalt is Emeritus Professor of History at Ohio State University. . She received her PhD from University of Michigan in 1970, and taught at Indiana University and the University of Minnesota before moving to Ohio State University in 1999. She has served as President of the Medieval Academy of America and President of the Social Science History Association.