Tradition and transformation in medieval romance

Romance studies from the twelfth century to the era of the printed book.

From the insular romance of the twelfth century (vital to an understanding of the literary and historical context of medieval English literature) to the era of the printed book, romance challenges generic definition, audience expectation and established scholarly approaches. This third volume of papers from the regular conference on Romance in Medieval England uses a broad range of material and methodologies to illuminate the subject. Topics include the strategies and audiences of crusading romances, the deployment by Chaucer and Gower of romance theme and style, a re-evaluation of the text of Gamelyn, and the shifting generic boundaries between romance, exemplum and legal narrative. Other papers explore the transformation of traditional material on the revenant dead and the divided family from ancient literary texts to the prose romances of the sixteenth century.

Dr ROSALIND FIELD teachesin the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Contributors: JUDITH WEISS, STEPHEN KNIGHT, NOEL JAMES MENUGE, DIANE SPEED, ELIZABETH WILLIAMS, PHILLIPA HARDMAN, ROBERT WARM, JOERG FICHTE, NANCY MASON BRADBURY, JEREMY DIMMICK, ELIZABETH ARCHIBALD, HELEN COOPER