These original essays mean to provoke rather than reassure, to challenge rather than codify. Instead of summarizing existing knowledge after the fashion of the now-ubiquitous literary 'companions,' these essays aim at opening fresh discussion; instead of emphasizing settled consensus they direct their readers to areas of enlivened and unresolved debate. Although 'major authors' such as Chaucer and Langland are richly represented, many little-known and neglected texts are considered as well. Analysis is devoted not only to self-sufficient works, but to the general conditions of textual production and reception. Contributors to this collection include some recognized and admired names, but also a good many newer faces: younger scholars whose groundbreaking research is just coming into full view, and whose perspectives will influence the terms of literary discussion in the decades to come. Encouraged to speculate, they have addressed topics that unsettle previous categories of investigation. Each is oriented toward the emergent, the unfinalized, the yet-to-be-done. Each essay stirs new questions and concludes with suggestions for further reading and investigation that will allow readers to extend their own research into the questions it has raised.

About the Author
Paul Strohm is Anna S. Garbedian Professor of Humanities at Columbia University. He was previously J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, and, before that, taught at Indiana University for many years.

Reviews
Displaying all the innovation, intelligence, and playfulness of Strohm's earlier monographs... this essay collection brings together both established and emerging scholars in a series of investigations and speculations... A short review cannot do justice to the immense variety and innovation of this volume... The range of references is excellent and the standard of work is consistently high. * Matthew Woodcock, Review of English Studies *
The lack of obviousness, the questioning mode, and the choice of contributors interested in critical, cultural and theoretical questions will draw in many readers to this consciously 'twenty-first-century' volume. * Medium Aevum *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199287666
Author Paul Strohm
Format Hardback
Page Count 536
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 253mm * 180mm * 37mm