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Book Synopsis

Critics of Piers Plowman have often behaved as if the great fourteenth-century English poem were written by committee, Written Work marks a major shift in orientation by focusing on William Langland instead of Piers Plowman.
The five original historicist studies collected here are less concerned with searching for Langland''s identity in medieval records than with examining the marks, even scars, left on him by the history he touched. Derek Pearsall studies what Langland knew about London—its geography, economics, and social life—and the way his focus on the city shifted in the course of revising the poem. Kathryn Kerby-Fulton examines the conditions for authorship and publishing in late fourteenth-century England and uncovers evidence of Langland''s struggles to attract patronage and maintain control over the text and circulation of Piers.
Anne Middleton''s stunning chapter explores how the long shadow of fourteenth-century labor laws fell

Written Work

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    A Hardback by Steven Justice, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton

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      Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
      Publication Date: 9/29/1997 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9780812233964, 978-0812233964
      ISBN10: 0812233964
      Also in:
      Literary studies: ancient, classical

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Critics of Piers Plowman have often behaved as if the great fourteenth-century English poem were written by committee, Written Work marks a major shift in orientation by focusing on William Langland instead of Piers Plowman.
      The five original historicist studies collected here are less concerned with searching for Langland''s identity in medieval records than with examining the marks, even scars, left on him by the history he touched. Derek Pearsall studies what Langland knew about London—its geography, economics, and social life—and the way his focus on the city shifted in the course of revising the poem. Kathryn Kerby-Fulton examines the conditions for authorship and publishing in late fourteenth-century England and uncovers evidence of Langland''s struggles to attract patronage and maintain control over the text and circulation of Piers.
      Anne Middleton''s stunning chapter explores how the long shadow of fourteenth-century labor laws fell

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