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Overview

An introduction to Gower and his work, focusing on his sources, historical context and literary tradition; special attention is paid to Confessio Amantis.

Chaucer, Gower and Lydgate were the three poets of their time considered to have founded the English poetic tradition. Gower, like Lydgate, eventually fell victim to changing tastes but is now enjoying renewed scholarly attention.Current work in manuscript studies, linguistic studies, vernacularity, translation, politics, and the contexts of literary production has found a rich source in Gower's trilingual, learned, and politically engaged corpus. This Companion to Gower offers essays by scholars from Britain and North America, covering Gower's works in all three of his languages; they consider his relationships to his literary sources, and to his social, material and historical contexts; and they offer an overview of the manuscript, linguistic, and editorial traditions. Five essays concentrate specifically on the Confessio Amantis, Gower's major Middle English work, reading it in terms of its relationship to vernacular and classical models, its poetic style, and its treatment of such themes as politics, kingship, gender, sexuality, authority, authorship and self-governance. A reference bibliography, arranged as a chronologyof criticism, concludes the volume.

Contributors J.A. BURROW, ARDIS BUTTERFIELD, NATHALIE COHEN, E.H. COOPER, SIAN ECHARD, ROBERT EPSTEIN, JOHN HINES, EDWARD MOORE, DEREK PEARSALL, RUSSELL PECK, A.G. RIGG, SIMON ROFFEY, JEREMY J. SMITH, DIANE WATT, WINTHROP WETHERBEE, ROBERT F. YEAGER.

SIAN ECHARD is associate professor, Department of English, University of British Columbia.
The Companion can serve as an introduction to Gower and his works for the advanced undergraduate or graduate student, and the essays will also be of interest to experts in Middle English studies and in Gower.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781843842446
Publisher: BOYDELL & BREWER INC
Publication date: 03/18/2010
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

The late Derek Pearsall was Emeritus Gurney Professor of Middle English Literature at Harvard University; he wrote extensively on Chaucer, Gower, Langland and Lydgate, including biographies of Chaucer and Lydgate, an edition of the C-text of Langland's Piers Plowman.

Professor Diane Watt is Head of the School of English and Languages, University of Surrey. Secretaries of God won the 1998 Foster Watson Memorial Gift.

Jeremy Smith was professor of English philology at Glasgow, where he remains a senior research fellow and emeritus professor, and an honorary professor at St Andrews. His specialisms include English historical linguistics, medieval studies, and book history, combined recently in Transforming Early English (2020).

JOHN HINES is Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University.

Table of Contents

Iohannes Gower, Armiger, Poeta: Records and Memorials of his Life and Death [with Nathalie Cohen and Simon Roffey] - John Hines
Iohannes Gower, Armiger, Poeta: Records and Memorials of his Life and Death [with Nathalie Cohen and Simon Roffey] - Simon Roffey
Iohannes Gower, Armiger, Poeta: Records and Memorials of his Life and Death [with Nathalie Cohen and Simon Roffey] - Nathalie Cohen
London, Southwark, Westminster: Gower's Urban Contexts - Robert Epstein
John Gower and London English - Jeremy J Smith
The Manuscripts and Illustrations of Gower's Work - Derek Pearsall
Gower after the Middle Ages I: 'This worthy olde writer': Pericles and other Gowers, 1592-1640 - Helen Cooper
Gower after the Middle Ages II: Gower in print - Sian Echard
The French Works: John Gower's French - Robert F Yeager
The Latin Works: Politics, Lament and Praise [with Ted Moore] - Edward Moore
The Confessio and the French Tradition - Ardis Butterfield
Classical and Boethian Tradition in the Confessio Amantis - Winthrop Wetherbee
Gender and Sexuality in Confessio Amantis - Diane Watt
The Politics and Psychology of Governance in Gower: Ideas of Kingship and Real Kings - Russell Peck
Gower's Poetic Styles - John A. Burrow
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