| 'Piers Plowman' and the Medieval Discourse of Desire Contributor(s): Zeeman, Nicolette (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521122988 ISBN-13: 9780521122986 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $41.79 Product Type: Paperback Published: November 2009 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Medieval - Literary Criticism | English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh - Literary Criticism | Poetry |
| Dewey: 821.1 |
| Series: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature |
| Physical Information: 0.73" H x 6" W x 9" (1.06 lbs) 328 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - British Isles - Chronological Period - Medieval (500-1453) |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This ambitious work links William Langland's great poem Piers Plowman to wider medieval enquiries into the nature of intellectual and spiritual desire. Nicolette Zeeman traces the history of psychology and its iconography in medieval devotional and theological literature, stretching back to St Augustine and Gregory the Great, and shows how an understanding of these traditions opens up a fresh reading of Piers Plowman. She challenges the consensus according to which the poem narrates an essentially positive 'education' of the will, and reveals instead a narrative of desire emerging from rebuke, loss and denial. This radical reading revolutionises our thinking about Piers Plowman, and sheds light on the history of medieval psychology, devotion, pastoral care, medieval textual theory and literary history. |