Overview
I focus on the mutable ideas of authority and authorship in medieval literature and culture in England c. 900-1500, and especially literary and historical writings in English, French, and Latin in relation to changing audiences, institutions, social contexts, and ethical ideas, particularly in the later centuries of that span. My teaching and writing often feature book history; ethical norms and their literary and social expressions; relations of Latin to various vernacular tongues (especially English and French); economic modes before capitalism and their intellectual, literary, and historiographical resonances; reception of classical literature; women writers and patrons; and medieval literary theory. Special focuses are Piers Plowman, Chaucer, John Gower, medieval historical writing, medieval drama, forms of “lyric,” and early modern (and sometimes later) understandings of medieval literature.
Research Focus
- Old and Middle English poetry and its contexts (especially 13th through 15th centuries)
- Medieval Latin literature
- Audiences and contexts for medieval poetry
- Textual criticism
- Medieval historical writing
- Medieval literary theory
- Multilingualism, vernacularity, and linguistic standardization
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