Last words : the public self and the social author in late medieval England. / Sebastian Sobecki.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sobecki, Sebastian I., author.

Series:

Oxford textual perspectives.

Oxford textual perspectives

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gower, John, 1325?-1408--Criticism and interpretation.

Gower, John.

Criticism and interpretation.

Fortescue, John--Sir--1394?-1476?.

Fortescue, John.

English literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc--Middle English, 1100-1500.

English literature.

English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism.

Authors, English--Middle English, 1100-1500.

Authors, English.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (239 pages).

Place of Publication:

Oxford University Press 2019

Summary:

No medieval text was designed to be read hundreds of years later by an audience unfamiliar with its language, situation, and author. By ascribing to these texts intentional anonymity, we romanticise them and misjudge the social character of their authors. Instead, most medieval poems and manuscripts presuppose familiarity with their authorial or scribal maker. 'Last Words: The Public Self and the Social Author in Late Medieval England' attempts to recover this familiarity and understand the literary motivation behind some of most important fifteenth-century texts and authors.0Last Words captures the public selves of such social authors when they attempt to extract themselves from the context of a lived life. Driven by archival research and literary inquiry, this book reveals where John Gower kept the Trentham manuscript in his final years, how John Lydgate wished to be remembered, and why Thomas Hoccleve wrote his best-known work, the Series. It includes documentary breakthroughs and archival discoveries, and introduces a new life record for Hoccleve, identifies the author of a significant political poem, and reveals the handwriting of John Gower and George Ashby.0Through its investments in archival study, book history, and literary criticism, Last Words charts the extent to which medieval English literature was shaped by the social selves of their authors.

Contents:

Last Words: The Public Self and the Social Author in Late Medieval England LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS The Indexical Self: An Introduction 1 Ecce patet tensus: The Trentham Manuscript, In Praise of Peace, and John Gower's Autograph Hand 2 The Series: Thomas Hoccleve's Year of Mourning 3 Parting Shots: Richard Caudray's Libelle of Englyshe Polycye 4 Lydgate's Kneeling Retraction: The Testament as a Literary Palinode 5 The Signet Self: George Ashby's Autograph Writing Afterword: Pragmatic Selves GENERAL INDEX

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-188607-6

0-19-250811-3