Research Catalog

Title

Relics and writing in late medieval England / Robyn Malo.

Author

Malo, Robyn, 1975-

Publication

• Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2013]
• ©2013

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

ix, 298 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

Relics and writing in late medieval England' uncovers a wide-ranging medieval discourse that had an expansive influence on English literary traditions. Drawing from Latin and vernacular hagiography, miracle stories, relic lists, and architectural history, this study demonstrates that, as the shrines of England’s major saints underwent dramatic changes from c. 1100 to c. 1538, relic discourse became important not only in constructing the meaning of objects that were often hidden, but also for canonical authors like Chaucer and Malory in exploring the function of metaphor and of dissembling language. Robyn Malo argues that relic discourse was employed in order to critique mainstream religious practice, explore the consequences of rhetorical dissimulation, and consider the effect on the socially disadvantaged of lavish expenditure on shrines. The work thus uses the literary study of relics to address issues of clerical and lay cultures, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and writing and reform.

Subject

• English literature > Middle English, 1100-1500 > History and criticism
• Religion and literature > England > History > To 1500
• Relics in literature

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-288) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction : relic discourse -- Part one. Relic discourse and the cult of saints. Representing relics -- The commonplaces of relic discourse -- Part two. The trouble with relic discourse. English Grail legends and the holy blood -- Relic discourse in the Pardoner's prologue and tale and Troilus and Criseyde -- Wycliffite texts and the problem of enshrinement -- Coda : the cultural work of relic discourse.

ISBN

• 9781442645639 (bound)
• 1442645636 (bound)

OCLC

824604934

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library