Readings in Medieval Texts Interpreting Old and Middle English Literature

Readings in Medieval Texts offers a thorough and accessible introduction to the interpretation and criticism of a broad range of Old and Middle English canonical texts from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. The volume brings together 24 newly commissioned chapters by a leading international team of medieval scholars.
An introductory chapter highlights the overarching trends in the composition of English Literature in the Medieval periods, and provides an overview of the textual continuities and innovations. Individual chapters give detailed information about context, authorship, date, and critical views on texts, before providing fascinating and thought-provoking examinations of crucial excerpts and themes.
This book will be invaluable for undergraduate and graduate students on all courses in Medieval Studies, particularly those focusing on understanding literature and its role in society.

1 - The context of medieval literature
2 - Old English religious poetry
3 - The Old English elegy: an historicization
4 - 'Tell me what I am': the Old English riddles
5 - Warring with words: Cynewulf's Juliana
6 - Old English heroic literature
7 - Beowulf: monuments, moments, history
8 - History and memory in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
9 - The persuasive power of Alfredian prose
10 - Old English religious prose: rhetorics of salvation and damnation
11 - Centralizing feminism in Anglo-Saxon Literary Studies: Elene, motherhood, and history
12 - Wise words: Old English sapiental poetry
13 - Middle English didactic literature
14 - Middle English writings for women: Ancrene Wisse
15 - The Middle English Brut chronicles
16 - Earlier verse romance
17 - Middle English debate literature
18 - Religious writing by Women
19 - The Gawain-poet
20 - Middle English prologues
21 - The Middle English lyrics
22 - Medieval dream visions: Chaucer's Book of the Duchess
23 - Late romance: Malory and the Tale of Balin
24 - Scottish literature
25 - Medieval drama: the Corpus Christi in York and Croxton

Elaine Treharne is Professor of Medieval Literature in the Department of English at the University of Leicester. She has published widely in the field of Medieval Literature and manuscript studies. She is currently Chair of the English Association, and member of its Fellowship and Higher Education Committees, and Second Vice-President of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists. David F. Johnson is Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in the Humanities at FSU, and Executive Director of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists. He specializes in Medieval English, Latin, and Germanic literatures and has published extensively in these areas.