Medieval English and Dutch Literatures: the European Context: Essays in Honour of David F. Johnson

The collection explores medieval England's cultural contracts with the Low Countries, honoring Professor David F. Johnson's scholarship. It highlights common texts, motifs, and themes across Old English and later medieval romances in English and Middle Dutch, investigating early English manuscript production and preservation. The essays draw on various approaches and disciplines to present a richer and nuanced view of the medieval literary past and cross-cultural contact between England and the Low Countries.

Format: Hardback
Length: 408 pages
Publication date: 12 July 2022
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Few scholars have contributed as much to the wider view of medieval England and its cultural contacts with the Low Countries as Professor David F. Johnson. His wide-ranging scholarship embraces both the textual traditions of Old English, especially in manuscript production, and later medieval romances in both English and Middle Dutch, highlighting their common texts, motifs, and themes. Taking Johnson's work as its starting point and model, the essays collected here investigate early English manuscript production and preservation, illuminating the complexities of reinterpreting Old English poetry, particularly Beowulf, and then go on to pursue those nuances through later English and Middle Dutch Arthurian romances and drama, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Canterbury Tales, and the Roman van Walewein. They explore a plethora of material, including early medieval textual traditions and stone sculpture, and draw on a range of approaches, such as Body and Disability Theories. Overall, the aim is to bring multiple disciplines into dialogue with each other, in order to present a richer and more nuanced view of the medieval literary past and cross-cultural contact between England and the Low Countries, from the pre-Conquest period to the late-Middle Ages, thus forming a most appropriate tribute to Professor Johnson's pioneering work.

Few scholars have contributed as much to the wider view of medieval England and its cultural contacts with the Low Countries as Professor David F. Johnson. His wide-ranging scholarship embraces both the textual traditions of Old English, especially in manuscript production, and later medieval romances in both English and Middle Dutch, highlighting their common texts, motifs, and themes. Taking Johnson's work as its starting point and model, the essays collected here investigate early English manuscript production and preservation, illuminating the complexities of reinterpreting Old English poetry, particularly Beowulf, and then go on to pursue those nuances through later English and Middle Dutch Arthurian romances and drama, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Canterbury Tales, and the Roman van Walewein. They explore a plethora of material, including early medieval textual traditions and stone sculpture, and draw on a range of approaches, such as Body and Disability Theories. Overall, the aim is to bring multiple disciplines into dialogue with each other, in order to present a richer and more nuanced view of the medieval literary past and cross-cultural contact between England and the Low Countries, from the pre-Conquest period to the late-Middle Ages, thus forming a most appropriate tribute to Professor Johnson's pioneering work.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781843846345