Piers Plowman and the medieval discourse of desire / Nicolette Zeeman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zeeman, Nicolette, 1956-

Series:

Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 59.

Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 59

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Langland, William, 1330?-1400? Piers Plowman.

Langland, William.

Desire in literature.

Christian poetry, English (Middle)--History and criticism.

Christian poetry, English (Middle).

Langland, William, 1330?-1400?--Knowledge and learning--Psychology.

Langland, William, 1330?-1400?.

Psychology.

Psychology in literature.

Physical Description:

x, 314 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Summary:

This ambitious work is the first book-length study to link William Langland's great poem Piers Plowman to wider medieval enquiries into the nature of intellectual and spiritual desire. Nicolette Zeeman traces the history of psychology and its iconography in medieval devotional and theological literature, stretching back to St Augustine and Gregory the Great, and shows how an understanding of these traditions opens up a completely new reading of Piers Plowman. She challenges the current consensus according to which the poem narrates an essentially positive 'education' of the will, and reveals instead a narrative of desire emerging from rebuke, loss and denial. This radical new reading revolutionises our thinking about Piers Plowman, and sheds new light on the history of medieval psychology, devotion, pastoral care, medieval textual theory and literary history.

Contents:

'Painful lettings': sin, temptation and tribulation

Powers of knowledge and desire

Studying the word

The word heard and written

Seeing and suffering in nature

Clergie and kynde in Piers Plowman

Imaginatyf and the feast of pacience

A poem shaped by knowing and wanting.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 284-308) and index.

ISBN:

0521856108

OCLC:

61131763

Publisher Number:

9780521856102 (hbk.)

Online:

Publisher description