Premodern Places

David Wallace is Judith Rodin Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. He has traveled extensively, exploring the importance of place both for print and documentary radio.

• List of illustrations. Introduction.1. At Calais Gate.2. In Flaunders.3. Dante in Somerset.4. Genoa.5. Canaries (The Fortunate Islands).6. Surinam.Acknowledgments.Index

“David Wallace’s knowledge of European medieval literature is unequalled. His book is a cornucopia of illuminating details, insights and connections that are simply not to be found anywhere else.” Terry Jones “My Cinderella prize for the year’s most underrated book goes to David Wallace, whose Premodern Places mixes romance and bizarrerie in a study of medieval and Renaissance ideas about geography and locality.” Jonathan Keates, The Spectator 'Book of the Year' feature, 2004 “This is one of the sharpest and most imaginative books of literary criticism I've read in many years.” Peter Hulme, University of Essex “Offering illuminating genealogies for a range of authors and literary texts, Premodern Places radically questions many assumptions about historical as well as geographic boundaries. … this book asks both premodernists and postcolonialists to rethink their disciplines and make urgent connections across space and time.” Ania Loomba, University of Pennsylvania “… a most brilliant representative of Postcolonial Medieval Studies.” José Rabasa, University of California