Translations of authority in medieval English literature : valuing the vernacular / Alastair Minnis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Minnis, A. J. (Alastair J.), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--Criticism, Textual.

English literature.

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

Transmission of texts--England--History--To 1500.

Transmission of texts.

Authority in literature.

Translating and interpreting--Political aspects--England--History--To 1500.

Translating and interpreting.

Latin language--Translations into English--History--To 1500.

Latin language.

Politics and literature--England--History--To 1500.

Politics and literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 272 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Translations of Authority in Medieval English Literature, leading critic Alastair Minnis presents the fruits of a long-term engagement with the ways in which crucial ideological issues were deployed in vernacular texts. The concept of the vernacular is seen as possessing a value far beyond the category of language - as encompassing popular beliefs and practices which could either confirm or contest those authorized by church and state institutions. Minnis addresses the crisis for vernacular translation precipitated by the Lollard heresy; the minimal engagement with Nominalism in late fourteenth-century poetry; Langland's views on indulgences; the heretical theology of Walter Brut; Margery Kempe's self-promoting biblical exegesis; and Chaucer's tales of suspicious saints and risible relics. These discussions disclose different aspects of 'vernacularity', enabling a fuller understanding of its complexity and potency.

Contents:

Absent glosses : the trouble with middle English hermeneutics

Looking for a sign : the quest for Nominalism in Ricardian poetry

Piers's protean pardon : Langland on the letter and spirit of indulgences

Making bodies : confection and conception in Walter Brut's vernacular theology

Spiritualizing marriage : Margery Kempe's allegories of female authority

Chaucer and the relics of vernacular religion.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-265) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-19069-X

1-107-40394-4

1-282-10374-1

9786612103742

0-511-57566-1

0-511-51779-3

0-511-51521-9

0-511-51425-5

0-511-51649-5

OCLC:

609833388