Preaching and narrative in Piers Plowman / Alastair Bennett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bennett, Alastair, author.

Series:

Oxford studies in medieval literature and culture.

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford studies in medieval literature and culture

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Langland, William.

Piers Plowman (Langland, William).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (277 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2023.

Summary:

William Langland's Piers Plowman was written and read during a 'golden age' of English preaching. The poem describes a world where sermons took many different forms and were delivered in many different contexts, from public events in the life of the realm to pastoral instruction in the parish. It dramatises preaching as part of its allegorical action, showing how sermons shaped their listeners' understanding of the world; it also includes polemical critique of corrupt, self-interested preaching, and offers radical prescriptions for its reform. This book argues that Langland's central insight into the way that sermons moved and engaged their audiences had to do with their characteristic use of narrative.

Contents:

Cover

Preaching and Narrative in Piers Plowman

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Contents

List of Figures

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Preaching and Narrative in Piers Plowman

Literature and Pulpit

Holy Church and the Story of Salvation

Time and Narrative

1. Preaching on the Coronation: The Prologue and the Sermon of Conscience

'To counseillen þe Kyng and þe Commune saue'

Conflicted Voices

Henry Harclay and the Crown of England

Conscience and the 'lawe of lif '

2. Preaching on the Half-Acre: Fear, Hope, and Narrative in the Second Vision

Storm Damage

Signs of the Times

Piers Plowman and the Hope of 'Hire'

Piers the Pardoner

3. Preachers and Minstrels: Study's Complaint and the Feast of Conscience

Curious Preaching

Tales of Tobit

Richard Alkerton's Curry Comb

'Murye Tales' at the Feast of Conscience

4. Preaching on the Lifetime: Sermons and the 'Self-Constant' Subject in Piers Plowman

Life Lessons

Fortune's Mirror, Scripture's Sermon

Ymaginatif and the 'Self-constant' Subject

Last Things

5. Histories of the Self, the World, and the Sermon: Anima and the Tree of Charity

Whider I sholde and wherof I cam': Anima and the Narrated Self

The Tree of Charity and the Shape of History

'Ite in vniuersum mundum et predicate': Christian Evangelism and the Preaching of Mohammed

Coda: Atonement and Emplotment at the Harrowing of Hell

Works Cited

Manuscripts

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Index.

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2023.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on August 31, 2023).

Other Format:

Print version: Bennett, Alastair Preaching and Narrative in Piers Plowman

ISBN:

0-19-198131-1

0-19-288627-4

0-19-288628-2

OCLC:

1395918531