Nature and Medieval Literature

(Hardback)

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An account of the varying responses to nature found in major medieval literature.

Nature and Medieval Literature investigates medieval writers who explore natural themes but also critique the human world through the patterns of nature. Starting with a consideration of ecological criticism in general, it shows how Welsh, French, and English authors deal differently with the Peredur/Perceval story. It then embarks on full-chapter studies of the treatment of nature in a range of major authors and texts: the work of Chaucer, then the Scottish Chaucerians, Dunbar and Henryson, the medieval and early modern outlaw myths (mostly about Robin Hood), the medieval English romances, and finally, a range of medieval English lyrics. In each case, it is shown how the texts at times represent the actual forces and patterns of the natural and animal worlds, but how in other casesand sometimes overlapping with an understanding of nature itselfauthors can use the natural and animal world as a basis for a critique of the human and increasingly urban world of the medieval period.

Reviews

"Ranging from early Welsh to his own speciality in Robin Hood material, and from humans who turn into animals to single lines of praise for a spring morning or a complexion like a rose, Stephen Knight's book presents a rich and generous survey of the ways in which the Middle Ages engaged with the natural (or indeed the supernatural) world."-- "Helen Cooper, Professor Emeritus of Medieval and Renaissance English, University of Cambridge"

Author Bio

Stephen Knight is retired honorary research professor at the University of Melbourne, and formerly distinguished research professor at Cardiff University.