The Routledge Companion to Medieval English Literature offers a new, inclusive, and comprehensive context to the study of medieval literature written in the English language from the Norman Conquest to the end of the Middle Ages. Utilising a Trans-European context, this volume includes essays from leading academics in the field across linguistic and geographic divides. Extending beyond the traditional scholarly discussions of insularity in relation to Middle English literature and ‘isolationism’, this volume: Oversees a variety of genres and topics, including cultural identity, insular borders, linguistic interactions, literary gateways, Middle English texts and traditions, and modern interpretations such as race, gender studies, ecocriticism, and postcolonialism. Draws on the combined extensive experience of teaching and research in medieval English and comparative literature within and outside of anglophone higher education and looks to the future of this fast-paced area of literary culture. Contains an indispensable section on theoretical approaches to the study of literary texts. This Companion provides the reader with practical insights into the methods and approaches that can be applied to medieval literature and serves as an important reference work for upper-level students and researchers working on English literature.

Working across literature, history, theory and practice, this volume offers insight into the specific digital tools and interfaces, as well as the modalities, theories and forms, central to some of the most exciting new research and critical, scholarly and artistic production in medieval and pre-modern studies. Addressing more general themes and topics, such as digitzation, media studies, digital humanities and "big data," the new essays in this companion also focus on more than twenty-five keywords, such as "access," "code," "virtual," "interactivity" and "network." A useful website hosts examples, links and materials relevant to the book.

A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture,c.1350-c.1500 challenges readers to think beyond a narrowlydefined canon and conventional disciplinary boundaries. A ground-breaking collection of newly-commissioned essays onmedieval literature and culture. Encourages students to think beyond a narrowly defined canonand conventional disciplinary boundaries. Reflects the erosion of the traditional, rigid boundary betweenmedieval and early modern literature. Stresses the importance of constructing contexts for readingliterature. Explores the extent to which medieval literature is in dialoguewith other cultural products, including the literature of othercountries, manuscripts and religion. Includes close readings of frequently-studied texts, includingtexts by Chaucer, Langland, the Gawain poet, and Hoccleve. Confronts some of the controversies that exercise students ofmedieval literature, such as those connected with literary theory,love, and chivalry and war.

A wide-ranging survey of the most important medieval authors and genres, designed for students of English.

A compact collection of focused introductions to and inquiries into medieval England, representing both history and literature.

The Routledge Companion to Death and Literature seeks to understand the ways in which literature has engaged deeply with the ever-evolving relationship humanity has with its ultimate demise. It is the most comprehensive collection in this growing field of study and includes essays by Brian McHale, Catherine Belling, Ronald Schleifer, Helen Swift, and Ira Nadel, as well as the work of a generation of younger scholars from around the globe, who bring valuable transnational insights. Encompassing a diverse range of mediums and genres – including biography and autobiography, documentary, drama, elegy, film, the novel and graphic novel, opera, picturebooks, poetry, television, and more – the contributors offer a dynamic mix of approaches that range from expansive perspectives on particular periods and genres to extended analyses of select case studies. Essays are included from every major Western period, including Classical, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and so on, right up to the contemporary. This collection provides a telling demonstration of the myriad ways that humanity has learned to live with the inevitability of death, where “live with” itself might mean any number of things: from consoling, to memorializing, to rationalizing, to fending off, to evading, and, perhaps most compellingly of all, to escaping. Engagingly written and drawing on examples from around the world, this volume is indispensable to both students and scholars working in the fields of medical humanities, thanatography (death studies), life writing, Victorian studies, modernist studies, narrative, contemporary fiction, popular culture, and more.

The study of early drama has undergone a quiet revolution in the last four decades, radically altering critical approaches to form, genre, and canon. Drawing on disciplines from art history to musicology and reception studies, The Routledge Research Companion to Early Drama and Performance reconsiders early "drama" as a mixed mode entertainment best studied not only alongside non-dramatic texts, but also other modes of performance. From performance before the playhouse to the afterlife of medieval drama in the contemporary avant-garde, this stunning collection of essays is divided into four sections: Northern European Playing before the Playhouse; Modes of Production and Reception; Reviewing the Anglophone Tradition; The Long Middle Ages Offering a much needed reassessment of what is generally understood as "English medieval drama", The Routledge Research Companion to Early Drama and Performance provides an invaluable resource for both students and scholars of medieval studies.