Greenery - (Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture) by Gillian Rudd (Paperback)

About the Book

Greenery blends current ecological concerns with informed analysis of medieval literature to arrive at new readings of late medieval English texts, some canonical (eg Malory's Morte D'Arthur, Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Chaucer's Knight's and Franklin's Tales) some less frequently studied (lyrics, Patience, Sir Orfeo).

From the Back Cover

Humankind has always been fascinated by the world in which it finds itself, and puzzled by its relations to it. Today that fascination is often expressed in what is now called 'green' terms, reflecting concerns about the non-human natural world, puzzlement about how we relate to it, and anxiety about what we, as humans, are doing to it. So called green or eco-criticism acknowledges this concern.

Greenery reaches back and offers new readings of English texts, both known and unfamiliar, informed by eco-criticism. After considering general issues pertaining to green criticism, Greenery moves on to a series of individual chapters arranged by theme (earth, trees, wilds, sea, gardens and fields) which provide individual close readings of selections from such familiar texts as Malory's Morte D'Arthur, Chaucer's Knight's and Franklin's Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Langland's Piers Plowman. These discussions are contextualized by considering them alongside hitherto marginalized texts such as lyrics, Patience and the romance Sir Orfeo. The result is a study which reinvigorates our customary reading of late Middle English literary texts while also allows us to reflect upon the vibrant new school of eco-criticism itself.

Review Quotes

[an] innovative and impeccably "of the moment" study'

About the Author

Gillian Rudd is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Liverpool