The Romance of the Rose and the Making of Fourteenth-Century English Literature

The Romance of the Rose had a significant impact on the multilingual literary culture of fourteenth-century England, leaving behind more material evidence for late medieval English-speaking readers than any other vernacular literary work from mainland Europe. This book explores its influence on English literature and the literary experiments it inspired, linking it to cultural developments in mainland Europe. It argues for the Rose's central place in fourteenth-century English literature and examines its rich manuscript history to reveal new evidence about its cultural significance. The chapters avoid an author-centred approach and present readings of the Rose in constellations that highlight the complex inter-relationships between different readings of the text in fourteenth-century England.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 17 February 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The Romance of the Rose had a transformative effect on the multilingual literary culture of fourteenth-century England, leaving more material evidence for late medieval English-speaking readers than any other vernacular literary work from mainland Europe. This book examines its decisive effect on English literature of the fourteenth century, and new literary experiments it provoked from writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, William Langland, and the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Linking the English afterlife of the Rose to a host of ongoing cultural developments in mainland Europe, The Romance of the Rose and the Making of Fourteenth-Century English Literature reveals the deep interconnectedness of English and European literary culture. Examining courtly, clerical, and classicising orientations towards the text, it presents new arguments for the place of the Rose at the centre of fourteenth-century English literature, and explores its rich manuscript history to reveal new evidence about the cultural significance of this love allegory from thirteenth-century France. The chapters avoid an author-centred approach, arranging readings of the Rose and its relation with English literature in constellations that reveal complex unfolding inter-relation of the diverse readings of the Rose that took place in fourteenth-century England.

Weight: 644g
Dimension: 164 x 242 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192847171