Europe
Volume 2: A Literary History, 1348-1418
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:21st Jan '21
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
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- Hardback£127.50(9780199580026)
This volume of Europe explores the literary history from 1348 to 1418, highlighting the diverse cultural exchanges that shaped the continent's identity.
The second volume of this two-volume edition, Europe, brings together leading scholars to provide the first comprehensive literary history of the continent. Covering the period from 1348 to 1418, the volumes reveal in remarkable detail the achievements of European literature through its diversity, local uniqueness, and transformative influence. This collaborative effort unfolds in ten sequences of interconnected places, shaped by trade, travel, geography, language, pilgrimage, alliances, disease, and artistic exchange.
The timeframe of 1348 to 1418 serves as vital context for understanding contemporary developments in Europe, particularly those arising from the devastation and upheaval of World War II. The narrative begins with the catastrophic bubonic plague of 1348, which claimed the lives of one in three individuals. Literary cultures played a crucial role in the recovery from this unprecedented crisis, offering solace, distraction, and new ideals for living. The book explores the complex questions surrounding the geographical and cultural boundaries of Europe, as well as the ongoing debates about identity and belonging.
As the narrative progresses, Europe delves into the enduring divisions between Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity, the schism of the papacy in 1378, and the flourishing of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literary cultures. From 1414 to 1418, western nations sought to resolve their papal conflicts while exchanging literary, humanist, and musical ideas, all against the backdrop of a continent in flux. This volume's 82 chapters offer a fresh perspective on the vibrant movement of European literature, emphasizing its diversity and regenerative power.
This project is a major achievement, one that will be of tremendous use to scholars in the area. It succeeds in responding to the contemporary challenges to the identity of Europe as a political entity, seen most dramatically perhaps in the turmoil over the Brexit vote... It is particularly valuable for bringing out cultural differences in areas usually treated as being essentially homogeneous, and, conversely, in emphasising the power of lines of economic and literary exchange in binding together points of production not usually associated with each other. * Ethan Knapp (Ohio State University), The Spenser Review *
These modern examples, again instances of literary production and response that have to be read in terms of places and layerings, illustrate the key aspect that the book so wonderfully brings to our attention: literature is produced in places that are saturated with text, character, and experience; and these texts migrate, get archived, become parts of libraries and collections, and generate readers and texts in these very places, welcoming itinerant materials and engaging with them. What happens to the reader who dwells in this richness is both a defamiliarization, with regard to established temporal and topographical patterns, and a newfamiliarity with the landscapes and the configurations that make literatures and literary imagination emerge. * Marisa Galvez, Speculum *
ISBN: 9780198870654
Dimensions: 250mm x 175mm x 45mm
Weight: 1654g
912 pages