The New Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance

This new Companion introduces the most important medieval vernacular literary genre in Britain and continental Europe.

Courtly romance was the most important vernacular literary genre during the Middle Ages in Europe. This new Companion introduces students and general readers to its poetics, narrative voice, and manuscript contexts, and reveals its relationship with the Mediterranean, gender, race and emotions alongside many other themes.This new Companion provides a broad and perceptive overview of the most important vernacular literary genre of the Middle Ages. Freshly commissioned, original chapters from seventeen leading scholars introduce students and general readers to the form's poetics, narrative voice and manuscript contexts, as well as its relationship to the Mediterranean world, race, gender and the emotions, among many other topics. Providing fresh perspectives on the first pan-European literary movement, essays range across a broad geographical area, including England, France, Italy, Germany and the Iberian Peninsula, as well as a varied linguistic spectrum, including Arabic, Hebrew and Yiddish. Exploring the celebration of chivalric ideals and courtly refinements, the volume excavates the tensions and traumas lying beneath decorous surface appearances. An introduction, bibliography of texts and translations as well as chapter-by-chapter reading lists complete this essential guide.