Loading...
Title: Medieval Balladry and the Courtly Tradition

Medieval Balladry and the Courtly Tradition

Literature of Revolt and Assimulation

by Gwendolyn Morgan (Author)
©1993 Others VIII, 150 Pages
English Studies
Series: American University Studies , Volume 160

Summary

Often ignored or given only cursory review, the medieval ballads represent the literature of the commoner, the largest population segment of the time. Far from being merely inexpert ditties, the ballads express the bleak and pragmatic world view of the peasant and laborer, and later the social aspirations of the new yeoman class. In doing so, they mount an attack against aristocratic ideologies of chivalry, courtly love, and the tripartite society on the philosophical and metaphoric levels. Gwendolyn Morgan's reading of the ballads of chivalry in this light leads to a new understanding of balladry's place in the English literary tradition and shatters the image of monolithic Golden Age of Faith.

Details

Pages
VIII, 150
Year
1993
ISBN (Hardcover)
9780820420424
Language
English
Published
New York, Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt/M., Paris, Wien, 1993. VIII, 150 pp.

Biographical notes

Gwendolyn Morgan (Author)

The Author: Gwendolyn Morgan is Professor of Medieval and British Literature and Language at Montana State University. She received her B.A. from McGill University and studied at York University and the University of South Florida, receiving her Ph.D. from the latter. She has published articles on medieval and Anglo-Saxon literature in a variety of professional journals and books, and others on popular culture. Dr. Morgan is currently producing an anthology of imitative translations on the Anglo-Saxon minor poems with Brian McAllister and a collection of essays, Reading and Writing in the New Middle Ages, with rhetorician David Metzger.

Previous

Title: Medieval Balladry and the Courtly Tradition