Description
Book SynopsisPastoral and locus amoenus traditions in Medieval English literature, and the early mythologisation of English landscape, space and identity through pastoral topoi. In its exploration of literary representations of ideal landscapes and the production of English identity across Latin and vernacular texts from Bede to Chaucer, this study looks in particular at pastoral and locus amoenustraditions in Medieval English literature, and the early mythologisation of English landscape, space and identity through pastoral topoi. From Bede's Ecclesiastical History and its seminal interpretation of Britain as thedelightful island, the study moves through representations of landscape in Old English poetry to the exploitation of the symbolic potential of their local landscapes by regional monastic houses in twelfth- and thirteenth-century texts and pastoral conventions, performances and the idea of the city in the fourteenth century. Introductory and concluding sections form bridges to current scholarship on representations of Englishness through pastoral topoi in the Early Modern period. Catherine A.M. Clarke is Professor of English, University of Southampton.
Trade ReviewScholars interested in the production of medieval nationhood will benefit from reading Literary Landscapes, while those engaged in pastoral genres will find that a new area of research has emerged courtesy of Catherine Clarke. * JOURNAL OF ENGLISH & GERMANIC PHILOLOGY *
Succeeds in demonstrating the importance and the consistency of an English locus amoenus tradition that was crucial to development of early-modern pastoral. * SPECULUM *
Helps to take us towards how landscapes were imagined and understood in the Middle Ages. * MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY *
Intelligent, erudite and thought-provoking. [...] Offers a timely and illuminating reminder of the complexities of geographical representation within medieval literary culture. * MEDIUM AEVUM *
Helps to define the problems of integrating the complex and highly theorized field of textual and literary criticism with the empirical data and methodologies of landscape history. Clearly written and a pleasure to read. * LANDSCAPES *
Table of ContentsIntroduction The Edenic Island Re-making the locus amoenus in Anglo-Saxon England Local Landscapes as Mirrors for England The Delightful City Epilogue: Disruptions and Continuities Bibliography Index
