Transitional States: Change, Tradition, and Memory in Medieval Literature and Culture

Changes in words, changes in the world, and changes in minds: transitions between states of speaking, writing, thinking, and being are the subjects of the 14 essays in this collection, which celebrates and was inspired by the work of Allen J. Frantzen. Ranging from individual word-studies to investigations of artifacts and material culture, to historical, philosophical and theological syntheses, the essays are characterized by the same combination of multi-disciplinarity and meticulous attention to detail as the scholarship of the honorand. Transitional States shows how the interplay of tradition and innovation, historical currents and individuality, loss, memory and memorialization combine to produce both the culture of the Middle Ages and our understanding of it.