Romancing treason : the literature of the Wars of the Roses

Resource Information

The work Romancing treason : the literature of the Wars of the Roses represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Romancing treason : the literature of the Wars of the Roses

Title remainder

the literature of the Wars of the Roses

Statement of responsibility

Megan G. Leitch

Title variation

Literature of the Wars of the Roses

Creator

• Leitch, Megan G

Author

• Leitch, Megan G

Subject

• English literature -- Middle English
• English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- History and criticism
• 1100 - 1500
• Treason in literature
• Treason in literature
• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Genre

• Criticism, interpretation, etc

Language

eng

Summary

This book addresses the scope and significance of the secular literary culture of the Wars of the Roses, and especially of the Middle English romances that were distinctively written in prose during this period. Megan Leitch argues that the pervasive textual presence of treason during the decades c.1437-c.1497 suggests a way of conceptualising the understudied space between the Lancastrian literary culture of the early fifteenth century and the Tudor literary cultures of the early and mid-sixteenth century. Drawing upon theories of political discourse and interpellation, and of the power of language to shape social identities, this book explores the ways in which, in this textual culture, treason is both a source of anxieties about community and identity, and a way of responding to those concerns. Despite the context of decades of civil war, treason is an understudied theme even with regards to Thomas Malory's celebrated prose romance, the Morte Darthur. Leitch accordingly provides a double contribution to Malory criticism by addressing the Morte Darthur's engagement with treason, and by reading the Morte in the hitherto neglected context of the prose romances and other secular literature written by Malory's English contemporaries. This book also offers new insights into the nature and possibilities of the medieval romance genre and sheds light on understudied texts such as the prose Siege of Thebes and Siege of Troy, and the romances William Caxton translated from French. More broadly, this book contributes to reconsiderations of the relationship between medieval and early modern culture by focusing on a comparatively neglected sixty-year interval - the interval that is customarily the dividing line, the 'no man's land' between well-but separately-studied periods in English literary studies

Cataloging source

ERASA

Dewey number

810/820

Index

index present

LC call number

PR291

LC item number

.L45 2015

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography