Böcker i Publications of the John Gower Society-serien

John Gower's poetry offers an important and immediate response to the turbulent events of his day. The essays here examine his life and his works from an historical angle, bringing out fresh new insights.The late fourteenth century was the age of the Black Death, the Peasants' Revolt, the Hundred Years War, the deposition of Richard II, the papal schism and the emergence of the heretical doctrines of John Wyclif and the Lollards.These social, political and religious crises and conflicts were addressed not only by preachers and by those involved in public affairs but also by poets, including Chaucer and Langland. Above all, though, it is in the verse of John Gower that we find the most direct engagement with contemporary events. Yet, surprisingly, few historians have examined Gower's responses to these events or have studied the broader moral and philosophical outlook which he used to make sense of them. Here, a number of eminent medievalists seek to demonstrate what historians can add to our understanding of Gower's poetry and his ideas about society (the nobility and chivalry, the peasants and the 1381 revolt, urban life and the law), the Church (the clergy, papacy, Lollardy, monasticism, and the friars) gender (masculinity and women and power), politics (political theory and the deposition of Richard II) and science and astronomy. The book also offers an important reassessment of Gower's biography based on newly-discovered primary sources. STEPHEN RIGBY is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Social and Economic History at the University of Manchester; SIAN ECHARD is Professor of English, University of British Columbia. Contributors: Mark Bailey, Michael Bennett, Martha Carlin, James Davis, Seb Falk, Christopher Fletcher, David Green, David Lepine, Martin Heale, Katherine Lewis, Anthony Musson, Stephen Rigby, Jens Rohrkasten.

New perspectives on one of the most important medieval poets.The essays in this volume pay tribute to the distinguished career of Professor R.F. Yeager. Appropriately for one who has done so much to advance scholarship and critical debate on this poet, they focus on John Gower. The approaches taken range widely, from poetics to palaeography, from close critical interpretation to ecocriticism, offering important new readings of Gower and his age. Particular topics addressed include Gower's revisions to the Tale ofRosiphilee; theological and philosophical positions within Gower's work; the violence of manuscript images of Confessio Amantis; and the views of a fellow poet on Gower - Edward Thomas. SUSANNAH MARY CHEWNING is Senior Professor of English, Union County College. Contributors: Stephanie Batkie, Susannah Mary Chewning, Martha Driver, A.S.G. Edwards, Andrew Galloway, Brian Gastle, Richard Firth Green, Natalie Grinnell, Matthew Irvin, Michael Kuczynski, Roger Ladd, Peter Nicholson, Derek Pearsall, Russell A. Peck, David Roberts, William Rogers

Winner of the 2022 John Hurt Fisher Award from the John Gower SocietyFirst comprehensive catalogue of the manuscripts of one of the most important medieval works, with full descriptions of their features.

Essays shedding fresh and significant light on Gower's poetry, major and minor, as it was received, read, and re-produced in England and in Iberia from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries.

New essays on aspects of Gower's poetry, viewed through the lens of the self and beyond.

Essays considering the relationship between Gower's texts and the physical ways in which they were first manifested.

Eleven essays by influential scholars (from C.S. Lewis to A.J. Minnis] provide an introduction for students to Gower's Confessio Amantisand its important criticism.

An examination of Gower's skilful deployment of personae in his works, showing the parallels between the way he treats love, and the way he treats politics.