Del 59 i serien Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature

'Piers Plowman' and the Medieval Discourse of Desire

Häftad, Engelska, 2009

AvNicolette Zeeman

739 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar. Fri frakt för medlemmar vid köp för minst 249 kr.

Finns i fler format (1)

Inbunden

1 949 kr

Skickas inom 7-10 vardagar

This ambitious work links William Langland's great poem Piers Plowman to wider medieval enquiries into the nature of intellectual and spiritual desire. Nicolette Zeeman traces the history of psychology and its iconography in medieval devotional and theological literature, stretching back to St Augustine and Gregory the Great, and shows how an understanding of these traditions opens up a fresh reading of Piers Plowman. She challenges the consensus according to which the poem narrates an essentially positive 'education' of the will, and reveals instead a narrative of desire emerging from rebuke, loss and denial. This radical reading revolutionises our thinking about Piers Plowman, and sheds light on the history of medieval psychology, devotion, pastoral care, medieval textual theory and literary history.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2009-11-12
Mått152 x 229 x 19 mm
Vikt480 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieCambridge Studies in Medieval Literature
Antal sidor328
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9780521122986

Tillhör följande kategorier

Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Note on the text; Introduction: trial by desire; 1. 'Painful lettings': sin, temptation and tribulation; 2. Powers of knowledge and desire; 3. Studying the word; 4. The word heard and written; 5. Seeing and suffering in nature; 6. Clergie and kynde in Piers Plowman; 7. Imaginatyf and the feast of Pacience; 8. A poem shaped by knowing and wanting; Bibliography; Index.

Review of the hardback: 'Zeeman keeps her promise as her reading unsettles the very notion of development (itself reflected in the linear division of the poem into sequentially numbered passus) … There can be no doubt that this book represents a serious bid for a lasting place among authoritative readings of the poem … Zeeman's book is also stimulating in a very personal and, perhaps, catholic sense, since it inadvertently exposes our search for completion, closure, and, ultimately, a happy ending' Anglia