First detailed examination of theatricality in Chaucer and in Middle English literature and culture as a whole. Theatricality as a cultural process is vitally important in the middle ages; it encompasses not only the thematic importation of dramatic images into the Canterbury Tales, but also the social and ideological `performativities' of the mystery and morality plays, metadramatic investments, and the ludic energies of Chaucerian discourses in general. The twelve essays collected here address for the first time this intersection, using contemporary theoryand historical scholarship to treat a number of important critical problems, including the anthropology of theatrical performance; gender; allegory; Chaucerian metapoetics; intertextual play and jouissance; social mediationand rhetoric; genre; and the institutionality of medieval studies. JAMES J. PAXSON is Associate Professor of English at the University of Florida; LAWRENCE M. CLOPPER is Professor of English at Indiana University; SYLVIA TOMASCHis Associate Professor of English at Hunter College, City University of New York. Contributors: KATHLEEN ASHLEY, MARLENE CLARK, RICHARD DANIELS, ALFRED DAVID, RICHARD K. EMMERSON, JOHN GANIM, WARREN GINSBERG, ROBERT W. HANNING, SHARON KRAUS, SETH LERER, WILLIAM MCLELLAN, PAMELA SHEINGORN, PETER W. TRAVIS

Studies of texts from the late middle ages to the contemporary moment, together they indicate, broadly, directions both in postmodern studies and studies in medievalism. Bringing together significant statements on postmodern qualities of the invocation of the medieval, Postmodern Medievalisms is a cross-disciplinary and international collection. The volume also effects a critically celebratory appreciation of the intellectual and political possibilities of the many inchoate modes implicit in various acts of "postmodern" scholarship. The essays treat texts from the late middle ages to the contemporary moment, and together they indicate, broadly, what is happening both in postmodern studies and studies in medievalism. The fourteen essays of the collection are organized into four sections, Music (including Pavel Chinizul, Negru Voda, Arvo Part), Art and Architecture (contemporary architecture, Robert Rauschenberg and more), Cinema (Tolkien, Bresson, Braveheart among the matters discussed), and Literature (including Sir John Mandeville, Marco Polo, Marvel, Naomi Mitchison). Contributors: FLORIN CURTA, PAUL MURPHY, LEOPOLD BRAUNEISS, JOHN M. GANIM, KARL FUGELSO, VERLYN FLIEGER, WILLIAM D. PADEN, BRIAN LEVY, LESLEY COOTE, A.E. CHRISTA CANITZ, JENNIFER COOLEY, PAUL SMETHURST, ELENALEVY-NAVAFRO, ANITA OBERMEIER, SYLVIA MITTLER.

John M. Ganim presents a revised theory of late medieval literary history based on the relationship of the poet to the reader. His work shows how the increasingly compromised exemplary intent of later medieval poets led them to dramatize the reader as a character in the text and to develop complex forms of narrative characterized by discontinuity, distortion, and disorientation. Originally published in 1983. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

John M. Ganim presents a revised theory of late medieval literary history based on the relationship of the poet to the reader. His work shows how the increasingly compromised exemplary intent of later medieval poets led them to dramatize the reader as a character in the text and to develop complex forms of narrative characterized by discontinuity, distortion, and disorientation.

Originally published in 1983.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Whereas modern criticism has emphasized the unity and sense of permanence in The Canterbury Tales, John Ganim alerts us to a dialectically opposing dimension that Chaucer's poetics shares with the popular culture of the late Middle Ages: his celebration of the ephemeral and his sense of performance. Ganim uses the concept of theatricality to illuminate Chaucer's manipulations of the forms of popular culture and high literary discourse. He calls upon recent work in semiotics and social history to question Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the "carnivalesque" and the "dialogic," at the same time suggesting Bakhtin's usefulness in understanding Chaucer. This book includes chapters on how Chaucer adopts the voice of such popular literary forms as chronicles and pious collections, on his equivalence between his own image making and dramatic performance, and on Chaucer's and Boccaccio's handling of the related issues of popular understanding and the creation of illusions. The book concludes by describing how Chaucer conflates "noise" and popular expression, simultaneously appropriating and distancing himself from his richest cultural context. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Whereas modern criticism has emphasized the unity and sense of permanence in The Canterbury Tales, John Ganim alerts us to a dialectically opposing dimension that Chaucer's poetics shares with the popular culture of the late Middle Ages: his celebration of the ephemeral and his sense of performance. Ganim uses the concept of theatricality to illuminate Chaucer's manipulations of the forms of popular culture and high literary discourse. He calls upon recent work in semiotics and social history to question Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the "carnivalesque" and the "dialogic," at the same time suggesting Bakhtin's usefulness in understanding Chaucer.

This book includes chapters on how Chaucer adopts the voice of such popular literary forms as chronicles and pious collections, on his equivalence between his own image making and dramatic performance, and on Chaucer's and Boccaccio's handling of the related issues of popular understanding and the creation of illusions. The book concludes by describing how Chaucer conflates "noise" and popular expression, simultaneously appropriating and distancing himself from his richest cultural context.

Originally published in 1990.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.