Fifteenth-Century Lives: Writing Sainthood in England

Fifteenth-Century Lives by Karen A. Winstead identifies a significant shift in Middle English saints' lives writing, emphasizing character-oriented narratives, moral complexity, historical depth, political and social engagement, literary sophistication, and the promotion of scholarship and teaching. It highlights the influence of hagiography on the Reformation and its lasting impact on post-Reformation hagiography. The book appeals to students and scholars of late medieval English literature and religion.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 220 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2020
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press

Karen A. Winstead's book, Fifteenth-Century Lives, examines a significant shift in the writing of Middle English saints' lives during the fifteenth century. She demonstrates that hagiography became more character-oriented, morally complex, deeply embedded in history, and politically and socially engaged, featuring women more prominently than ever before. This literature placed a premium on scholarship and teaching, celebrating educators and scholars to a greater extent than ever before and becoming a vehicle for educating readers about Christian dogma. Winstead argues that the values promoted by fifteenth-century hagiography helped to shape the reformist impulses that eventually produced the Reformation and continued to influence post-Reformation hagiography well into the seventeenth century. This book is an important contribution to revisionary scholarship on fifteenth-century literature and will appeal to students and scholars of late medieval English literature and late medieval religion.

Weight: 308g
Dimension: 151 x 227 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780268108540