This volume brings together a wide range of original, scholarly essays on key figures and topics in medieval literature by leading academics. The volume examines the major authors such as Chaucer, Langland and the Gawain Poet, and covers key topics in medieval literature, including gender, class, courtly and popular culture, and religion. The volume seeks to provide a fresh and stimulating guide to medieval literature.

Edited By Beatrice Fannon

Series Editor's Preface.- Notes on Contributors.- Chronology.- Introduction: The Challenges and Rewards of Medieval English Literature; Beatrice Fannon .- PART I: READING MEDIEVAL ROMANCE.- 1. The Ownsership of Literature: Medieval Literature in its Historical Context; John Hines .- 2. Liminality in Middle English Arthurian Romances; Raluca Radulescu.- 3. Shifting Identities and Lanscapes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Gillian Rudd.- 4. Untraditional Medieval Literature: Romance, Fabliaux, Robin Hood and 'King and Subject' Ballads; Stephen Knight.- PART II: CHAUCER.- 5. Politics in the Reign of Richard II and the Works of Chaucer; Helen Phillips.- 6. The Consolations and Conflicts of History: Chaucer's 'Monk's Tale'; Rob Gossedge.- 7. Authors and Readers in Chaucer's House of Fame; Lewis Beer.- 8. Tie Knots and Slip Knots: Sexual Difference and Memory in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde; Ruth Evans.- 9. Chaucer and the Poetics of Gold; Valerie Allen.- PART III: RELIGIOUS TEXTS AND CONTEXTS.- 10. The Torment of the Cross: Perspectives on the Crucifixion in Medieval Lyric and Drama; Beatrice Fannon.- 11. Encountering Piers Plowman; Catherine Batt12. Work in Progress: Spiritual Authorship and the Middle English Mystics; Roger Ellis.- 13. Women's Voices in Middle English Literature: Who Gets to Speak and How?; Sheila Fisher .- 14. History, Frescoes, and Reading the Middle Ages: A Final Note; Martin Coyle.- Further Reading.- Index.