Middle English: Oxford Twenty-First Century Approaches to Literature (Oxford 21st Century Approaches to Literature) - Softcover

Few recent collections of essays have proved as stimulating as this one (Anglia)

Through skilful channelling of individual energies, sometimes in unexpected directions, Strohm has encouraged a huge crew of twenty-nine scholars, both young and established, to think afresh about their subject. The very titles of the essays ('Form', 'Beauty', 'Feeling') make one delirious with expectation: there is challenge without routine 'subversion', innovation without empty theorising, richly comprehensive coverage, and good writing of many kinds. The choice of contributors shows an encyclopaedic knowledge of the field, and the direction given to them has obviously been a stimulus to them to surpass themselves. Throughout there is ample display of the literary riches of the period, combined with an invigorating freedom of approach and a sense of hopeful endeavour. (Derek Pearsall)

These original essays mean to provoke rather than reassure, to challenge rather than codify. Instead of summarizing existing knowledge after the fashion of the now-ubiquitous literary 'companions,' these essays aim at opening fresh discussion; instead of emphasizing settled consensus they direct their readers to areas of enlivened and unresolved debate. Although 'major authors' such as Chaucer and Langland are richly represented, many little-known and neglected texts are considered as well. Analysis is devoted not only to self-sufficient works, but to the general conditions of textual production and reception. Contributors to this collection include some recognized and admired names, but also a good many newer faces: younger scholars whose groundbreaking research is just coming into full view, and whose perspectives will influence the terms of literary discussion in the decades to come. Encouraged to speculate, they have addressed topics that unsettle previous categories of investigation. Each is oriented toward the emergent, the unfinalized, the yet-to-be-done. Each essay stirs new questions and concludes with suggestions for further reading and investigation that will allow readers to extend their own research into the questions it has raised.