Essays addressing the relation of aesthetic artistry to historical context in medieval English narrative.

A collection of essays offering original arguments in a number of areas. Papers cluster around two topics: the writing of Langland and Chaucer, and writing as historical process. These reflect Frank's own wide-ranging work. The papers contain a refreshing ideological diversity while maintaining coherence of intellectual concerns. There is a discussion of the working of memory in The Knight's Tale. On debt, on Langland's Christology and on revelry, some very interesting ideas are put foward. In addition, literary contexts for the two major poets are usefully and thoroughly mapped out, and three papers illustrate how historical events and processes may be perceived in stimulatingly different ways. Included is an introduction from the editor and bibliography of Robert Worth Frank, Jnr.

Contributors: ELIZABETH KIRK, C. DAVID BENSON, ANNA BALDWIN, M.TERESA TAVORMINA, MONICA McALPINE, MARY CARRUTHERS, KATHRYN L. LYNCH, CAROLYN P. COLLETTE, MARY HAMEL, PAUL STROHM, THOMAS J. HEFFERMAN, PEGGY KNAPP