Court and Cultural Diversity

The expression of cultural differences in medieval courtly literature explored.Cultural differences in medieval European literary practice are reflected in many different ways, as this volume illustrates. The essays cover a whole range of courtly topics, in particular questions of context, genre and poetic voice. The five sections explore contexts for courtliness, especially the position of the vernacular poet at or near the court; the ways in which courtly values and political aspirations are reflected in the work of medieval chronicle and romance writers; questions of register, convention, gender, and narrative technique; problems of literary production and reception, particularly the transmission of courtly and quasi-courtly texts among widely differing medieval audiences; and broader issues such as the clues to the courtly mentality provided by peripheral narrative details, the blurring of conventional courtly boundaries, and the perennial fascination of tales with strong folklore or fabliau elements. Dr EVELYN MULLALLY and Dr JOHN THOMPSON are Senior Lecturers at the Queen's University of Belfast. Contributors: GEAROID MAC EOIN, NOLLAIG O MURA-LE, RUPERT T. PICKENS, FRANÇOISE LE SAUX, CATHERINE LÉGLU, BARBARA N. SARGENT-BAUR, AD PUTTER, MICHEL ZINK, DONALD MADDOX, JEANBLACKER, SARA STURM-MADDOX, MICHELLE SZKIILNIK, THEA SUMMERFIELD, HELEN COOPER JOHN SCATTERGOOD, JUNE HALL MCCASH, JOAN BRUMLIK, LESLIE C. BROOKMAUREEN BOULTON, JESSICA COOKE, DIANE M. WRIGHT, G. KOOLEMANS BEYNEN, LORI J. WALTERS, SYLVIA WRIGHT, FRANK BRANDSMA, CARTER REVARD, A S G EDWARDS, HEATHER COLLIER, TERENCE SCULLY, CHRISTOPHER KLEINHENZ, SARA I. JAMES, WILLIAM MACBAIN, SARA I. JAMES, MARY B. SPEER, YASMINA FOEHR-JANSSENS, CAROL J. HARVEY, BART BESAMUSCA, KEITH BUSBY

The essays range very widely, and cover subjects as varied as troubadours and the Privy Wardrobe, dogs and cooking, book-collecting and Bosworth Field... Stimulating and original, they undoubtedly illuminae the diverse nature both of courtly writing and of the cultures that produced, listened to, and read such writings.

A. S. G. Edwards has taught at various universities in North America and England and currently holds honorary professorships at the University of Kent, University College, London, and King's College, London. Ad Putter is Professor of Medieval English at the University of Bristol, UK, co-director of Bristol's Centre for Medieval Studies, and Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author and editor of numerous books, with a particular interest in Medieval Romance texts and the works of the Gawain poet. He is currently leading a research project on the literary heritage of Anglo-Dutch relations. MAUREEN BOULTON Professor of French, Department of Romance Languages & Literatures, University of Notre Dame.