Description
Book Synopsis`Provides an excellent one-volume guide to the works of the anonymous Gawain-poet.' CHOICEThe essays collected here on the
Gawain-Poet offer stimulating introductions to
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness and
Patience, providing both information and original analysis. Topics includetheories of authorship; the historical and social background to the poems, with individual sections on particularly important features within them; gender roles in the poems; the manuscript itself; the metre, vocabulary and dialect of the poems; and their sources. A section devoted to
Sir Gawain investigates the ideas of courtesy and chivalry found within it, and explores some of its later adaptations from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. Afull bibliography completes the volume. The late DEREK BREWER was Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge; JONATHAN GIBSON has worked as a lecturer in the Universities of Exeter and Durham.
Trade ReviewThis superb collection of introductory essays by leading scholars and critics provides an excellent one-volume guide to the works of the anonymous Gawain-poet. * CHOICE *
Impressive collection of essays... will surely become a key starting point for any new work on the poet and poems. * SPECULUM *
A boon companion, an essential guide, for those setting out to explore the world of this fascinating poet. * ARTHURIANA *
All students and scholars of the Middle English Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain will want to consult this valuable new compendium. * ANGLIA *
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Derek S Brewer Theories of Authorship - Malcolm Andrew Poetic Identity - A C Spearing *** Gender and Sexual Transgression - Jane Gilbert The Historical Background - Christianity for Courtly Subjects: Reflections on the Gawain-Poet - David Aers The Materials of Culture: Landscape and Geography - Ralph W V Elliott The Materials of Culture: Castles - Michael Thompson The Materials of Culture: Feasts - Derek S Brewer The Materials of Culture: Jewels in Pearl - Felicity Riddy The Materials of Culture: The Hunts in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Anne Rooney The Materials of Culture: Armour I - Michael Lacy The Materials of Culture: Armour II: The Arming Topos as Literature - Derek S Brewer The Materials of Culture: The Colour Green - Derek S Brewer The Materials of Culture: Some Names - Derek S Brewer The Manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x - A S G Edwards Meter, Stanza, Vocabulary, Dialect - Hoyt N Duggan Sources I: The Sources of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Elisabeth Brewer Sources II: Scriptural and Devotional Sources - Richard G. Newhauser The Supernatural - Helen Cooper The Gawain-Poet as a Vernacular Theologian - Nicholas Watson Allegory and Symbolism - Priscilla Martin Narrative Form and Insight - Nick Davis Courtesy and Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: The Order of Shame and the Invention of Embarrassment - Derek Pearsall SIR GAWAIN: SOME LATER VERSIONS The Grene Knight - Gillian E Rogers SIR GAWAIN: SOME LATER VERSIONS Sir Gawain at the fin de siècle: Novel and Opera - Barry A Windeatt SIR GAWAIN: SOME LATER VERSIONS Sir Gawain in Films - David J. Williams Bibliography
