Sleep and its Spaces in Middle English Literature: Emotions, Ethics, Dreams

Middle English literature explores sleep and its spaces, considering it an embodied and culturally determined act. It sheds light on medical and moral discourses, enabling dreams and dream poetry and standing in for desire and sex. This book argues that sleep mediates thematic concerns and questions with ethical, affective, and oneiric implications, contributing to understanding different Middle English genres.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 296 pages
\n Publication date: 29 June 2021
\n Publisher: Manchester University Press
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Middle English literature delves deeply into the realm of sleep and the environments in which it occurs, revealing a profound connection between the human experience and cultural context. In the medieval English imagination, sleep emerges as an embodied and culturally shaped phenomenon, intricately performed and interpreted by characters and contemporaries alike. It is governed by a specific habitus, shaped by prevailing medical and moral discourses, and interpreted through distinct hermeneutic lenses. By shedding light on the intersecting medical and moral frameworks that shape sleep, this book also uncovers previously overlooked aspects of its significance. It explores the potential of sleep to enable dreams and dream poetry, as well as its capacity to represent or substitute for other desires and sexual experiences.

Furthermore, this book argues that sleep mediates thematic concerns and questions in ethically, affectively, and oneiric ways, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of various Middle English genres. These genres include romance, dream vision, drama, and fabliau, each of which engages with sleep in unique and profound ways. Through its exploration of sleep's ethical, affective, and oneiric dimensions, Middle English literature offers valuable insights into the complexities of human consciousness, cultural identity, and the power of storytelling.

\n Weight: 498g\n
Dimension: 146 x 223 x 25 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781526151100\n \n