Elizabeth Archibald & Megan G Leitch 
Romance Rewritten 
The Evolution of Middle English Romance. A Tribute to Helen Cooper

New approaches to the everlasting malleability and transformation of medieval romance.


The essays here reconsider the protean nature of Middle English romance. The contributors examine both the cultural unity of romance and its many variations, reiterations and reimaginings, including its contexts and engagements with other discourses and forms, as they were ‚rewritten‘ during the Middle Ages and beyond. Ranging across popular, anonymous English and courtly romances, and taking in the works of Chaucer and Arthurian romance (rarely treated together), in connection with continental sources and analogues, the chapters probe this fluid and creative genre to ask just how comfortable, and how flexible, are its nature and aims? How were Middle English romances rewritten toaccommodate contemporary concerns and generic expectations? What can attention to narrative techniques and conventional gestures reveal about the reassurances romances offer, or the questions they ask? How do romances‘ central concerns with secular ideals and conduct intersect with spiritual priorities? And how are romances transformed or received in later periods? The volume is also a tribute to the significance and influence of the work of Professor Helen Cooper on romance.


Elizabeth Archibald is Professor of English Studies at Durham University; Megan G. Leitch is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University; Corinne Saunders is Professor of English and Co-Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham University.


Contributors: Elizabeth Archibald, Julia Boffey, Christopher Cannon, Neil Cartlidge, Miriam Edlich-Muth, A.S.G. Edwards, Marcel Elias, Megan Leitch, Andrew Lynch, Jill Mann, Marco Nievergelt, Ad Putter, Corinne Saunders, Barry Windeatt, R.F. Yeager

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction. Middle English Romance: The Motifs and the Critics –

Medieval Romance Mischief – Neil Cartlidge

Rewriting Chivalric Encounters: Cultural Anxieties and Social Critique in the Fourteenth Century – Marcel Elias

Malory’s Comedy – Christopher Cannon

Beginning with the Ending: Narrative Techniques and their Significance in Chaucer’s
Knight’s Tale – Jill Mann

The Riddle of ‚Apollonius‘: ‚A Bok for King Richardes Sake‘ – Robert F. Yeager

Malory and the Post-Vulgate Cycle – Elizabeth Archibald

Towards a Gestural Lexicon of Medieval English Romance – Barry A Windeatt

Giving Freely in
Sir Cleges: the Economy of Salvation and the Gift of Romance – Marco Nievergelt

From Magic to Miracle: Reframing
Chevalere Assigne – Miriam Edlich-Muth

Lifting the Veil: Voices, Visions and Destiny in Malory’s
Morte Darthur – Corinne Saunders

The Intelligence of
The Court of Love – Ad Putter

The Squire of Low Degree and the Penumbra of Romance Narrative in the Early Sixteenth Century – Julia Boffey

The Squire of Low Degree and the Penumbra of Romance Narrative in the Early Sixteenth Century – A S G Edwards

Contested Chivalry: Youth at War in Walter Scott and Charlotte M. Yonge – Andrew Lynch

Über den Autor

JULIA BOFFEY is Professor of Medieval Studies in the Department of English at Queen Mary University of London.