Performing the Middle Ages from 'Beowulf' to 'Othello' / by Andrew James Johnston.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Johnston, Andrew James.

Series:

• Late medieval and early modern studies ; v. 15.
• Late medieval and early modern studies ; 15

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• English literature--History and criticism.
• English literature.
• Middle Ages in literature.
• Civilization, Medieval, in literature.
• Medievalism in literature.
• Medievalism--England--History.
• Medievalism.
• History.
• England.

Physical Description:

viii, 342 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Turnhout : Brepols Publishers, 2008.

Summary:

• Performing the Middle Ages from 'Beowulf' to 'Othello' traces the dialogic nature of the relationship between the Middle Ages and modernity. Arguing that modern beliefs in the alterity of the Middle Ages stem from the Middle Ages' own processes of self-representation, Johnston explores varieties of nostalgia through a wide selection of texts. This volume spans an extensive chronological period with a view to demonstrating how our notions of the medieval have been crucially informed by the past itself. The study is focused on works which stage that popular literary archetype-the nostalgic figure of the aristocratic warrior-and argues that it is this image that provides a structural model for so many modern perspectives on the Middle Ages. And yet, in the Middle Ages this model was being deconstructed as it was also being generated. By moving from the self-consciously archaic heroism of Beowulf to the scathing comment on chivalric narrative presented in Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale', Johnston's analysis offers an intriguing insight into the way medieval texts engage in a continual aesthetic and ideological critique of their own cultural moment. Using Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Alliterative Morte Arthure as examples of an incisive critique of the cult of subjectivity and of a highly self-conscious desire for tradition, Johnston extends his analysis to the early seventeenth century, and explores the ways in which Shakespeare's Othello brilliantly deconstructs the very concept of 'Renaissance Man'. With its interest in issues of subjectivity, textual performance, and the ideological self-awareness of medieval culture, Performing the Middle Ages provides a scholarly and compelling investigation into the Middle Ages' ability both to understand itself and to shape (post) modern notions of the medieval.
• Late Medieval and Early Modern Studies
• The series covers the historical period in Western and Central Europe from c. 1300 to c. 1650. It concentrates on topics of broad cultural, religious, intellectual, and literary history. The editors are particularly interested in studies that are distinguished by their broad chronological range; their spanning of time periods such as late medieval, Renaissance, Reformation, early modern; their straddling of national borders and historiographies; and their cross-disciplinary approach.

Contents:

• Chapter 1 Beowulf and the Mask of Archaism 23
• Chapter 2 Performing Anti-subjective Subjectivity in Late-Medieval English Literature 91
• Voyeurism and Narratorial Power: The Cultural Politics of the 'Knights Tale' 94
• Effacing the Subject of Confession in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 124
• Chapter 3 History and Medievalism in the Alliterative Morte Arthure 165
• Chapter 4 Othello and the Chivalric Origins of 'Renaissance Man' 225.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [319]-342).

ISBN:

• 2503527558
• 9782503527550

OCLC:

245555750