Cory James Rushton & Raluca Radulescu 
A Companion to Medieval Popular Romance [PDF ebook] 

A comprehensive guide to the medieval popular romance, one of the age’s most important literary forms.


Popular romance was one of the most wide-spread forms of literature in the middle ages, yet despite its cultural centrality, and its fundamental importance for later literary developments, the genre has defied precise definition, its subject matter ranging from tales of chivalric adventure, to saintly women, and monsters who become human. The essays in this collection seek to provide an inclusive and thorough examination of romance. They provide contexts, definitions, and explanations for the genre, particularly in, but not limited to, an English context. Topics covered include genre and literary classification; race and ethnicity; gender; orality and performance; the romance and young readers; metre and form; printing culture; and reception.


CONTRIBUTORS: ROSALIND FIELD, RALUCA L. RADULESCU, MALDWYN MILLS, GILLIAN ROGERS, JENNIFER FELLOWS, THOMAS H. CROFTS, ROBERT ALLEN ROUSE, JOANNE CHARBONNEAU, DESIREE CROMWELL, AD PUTTER, KARL REICHL, PHILLIPA HARDMAN, CORY JAMES RUSHTON

Table of Content

Introduction – Raluca Radulescu and Cory Rushton

Popular Romance: The Material and the Problems – Rosalind Field

Genre and Classification – Raluca Radulescu

The Manuscripts of Popular Romance – Maldwyn Mills and Gillian E Rogers

Printed Romance in the Sixteenth Century – Jennifer Fellows

Middle English Popular Romance and National Identity – Thomas Howard Crofts and Robert Rouse

Gender and Identity in the Popular Romance – Joanne A Charbonneau and Desiree Cromwell

The Metres and Stanza Forms of Popular Romance – Ad Putter

Orality and Performance – Karl Reichl

Popular Romances and Young Readers – Phillipa Hardman

Modern and Academic Reception of the Popular Romance – Cory Rushton

Bibliography

About the author

THOMAS H CROFTS is Professor of English at East Tennessee State University.