A comprehensive guide to the medieval popular romance, one of the age's most important literary forms. Popular romance was one of the most wide-spread forms of literature in the middle ages, yet despite its cultural centrality, and its fundamental importance for later literary developments, the genre has defied precise definition,its subject matter ranging from tales of chivalric adventure, to saintly women, and monsters who become human. The essays in this collection seek to provide an inclusive and thorough examination of romance. They provide contexts,definitions, and explanations for the genre, particularly in, but not limited to, an English context. Topics covered include genre and literary classification; race and ethnicity; gender; orality and performance; the romance and young readers; metre and form; printing culture; and reception.
Author(s): Raluca L. Radulescu, Cory James Rushton (eds.)
Series: Studies in Medieval Romance, 10
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 224
City: Cambridge
Acknowledgements ix
Contributors x
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction / Raluca L. Radulescu and Cory James Rushton 1
1. Popular Romance: The Material and the Problems / Rosalind Field 9
2. Genre and Classification / Raluca L. Radulescu 31
3. The Manuscripts of Popular Romance / Maldwyn Mills and Gillian Rogers 49
4. Printed Romance in the Sixteenth Century / Jennifer Fellows 67
5. Middle English Popular Romance and National Identity / Thomas H. Crofts and Robert Allen Rouse 79
6. Gender and Identity in the Popular Romance / Joanne Charbonneau and Désirée Cromwell 96
7. The Metres and Stanza Forms of Popular Romance / Ad Putter 111
8. Orality and Performance / Karl Reichl 132
9. Popular Romances and Young Readers / Phillipa Hardman 150
10. Modern and Academic Reception of the Popular Romance / Cory James Rushton 165
Bibliography 181
Index 205
