Overview
"The first of its kind for medieval studies. . . . I cannot imagine that a collection of this caliber would not be consulted regularly by those of us who struggle with questions of interpreting and teaching the literature of the Middle Ages."—R. A. Shoaf, University of Florida
This is the first wide-ranging exploration of the theories of the 20th-century Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin, as they apply to medieval literature. It challenges established ways of reading medieval texts and constructs a cross-interrogation between medieval data and Bakhtinian theories.
Contents Part One: Carnival Voices in Medieval Texts Playing on the Margins: Bakhtin and the Smithfield Decretals, by Andrew Taylor Taking Laughter Seriously: The Comic and Didactic Functions of Helmbrecht, by Lisa R. Perfetti Dangerous Dialogues: The Sottie as a Threat to Authority, by Jody L. H. McQuillan Part Two: Multiple Voices in Medieval Texts Heteroglossia and Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, by Robert M. Jordan Dialogics and Prosody in Chaucer, by Steve Guthrie Dialogism, Heteroglossia, and Late Medieval Translation, by Daniel J. Pinti Medieval Authorship and the Polyphonic Text: From Manuscript Commentary to the Modern Novel, by Robert S. Sturges Part Three: Dissenting Voices in Dialogue with Bakhtin The Chronotopes of Monology in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale, by Thomas J. Farrell Popular-Festive Forms and Beliefs in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, by Nancy Mason Bradbury Problems of Bakhtin's Epic: Capitalism and the Image of History, by Mark A. Sherman
Thomas J. Farrell is associate professor and chair of the English Department at Stetson University, DeLand, Florida, where he holds the Kenneth P. Kirchman Chair in the Humanities. He has published articles in ELH, Studies in Philology, Chaucer Review, and other collections and journals.