John Gower: Others and the Self
Title Details

392 Pages

23.4 x 15.6 cm

5 b/w illus.

Series: Publications of the John Gower Society

Series Vol. Number: 11

Imprint: D.S.Brewer

John Gower: Others and the Self

Edited by Russell Peck and Robert F. Yeager

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Reviews
New essays on aspects of Gower's poetry, viewed through the lens of the self and beyond.

The topics of "selfhood" and "otherness" lie at the heart of these new assessments of John Gower's poetry. The first part of the book, on knowing the self and others, focuses on cognition, brain functions, imagination, and the internal and external factors that affect one's sense of being, from sensation and inner emotive effects within body parts to cosmic perspectives, morality, and theology as voiced by language and storytelling. The second, on the essence of strangers, explores the interconnections of sensation and aesthetics; it also considers kinds of social dysfunction, whether through racial or gender conflict, or religious and political warfare.The final part of the booklooks at social ethics and ethical poets, reassessing two of Gower's perpetual concerns: honest government and honest craft. It considers Gower as a constitutional thinker, whether in terms of law, judicial corruption, or a society of businessmen who would rewrite ethics in terms of business models. It concludes with an examination of the Confessio in the culture of Portugal and Spain.

Russell Peck is the John Hall Deane Professor of English at the University of Rochester: R. F. Yeager is Professor of English at the University of West Florida.

Contributors: Stephanie L. Batkie, Helen Cooper, Brian W. Gastle, Matthew Giancarlo, Matthew W. Irvin, Yoshiko Kobayashi, Robert J. Meindl, Peter Nicholson, Maura Nolan, Gabrielle Parkin, Russell A. Peck, Ana Sáez-Hidalgo, Larry Scanlon, Karla Taylor, Kim Zarins, R.F. Yeager,
Introduction - Robert F. Yeager and Russell Peck
The Materiality of Cognition in Reading, Staging, and Regulation of Brain and Heart Activities in Gower's Confessio Amantis - Russell Peck
The Sound of My Voice: Aurality and Credible Faith in the Vox Clamantis - Stephanie L. Batkie
"Noght withoute peine": Chastity, Complaint, and Lucrece's Vox Clamantis - Matthew W. Irvin
Reading Faces in Gower and Chaucer - Karla Taylor
Gower and Mortality: The Ends of Storytelling - Helen Cooper
Sensation and the Plain Style in John Gower's Confessio Amantis - Maura Nolan
Violence without Warning: Sympathetic Villains and Gower's Crafting of Ovidian Narrative - Kim Zarins
Gower, Lydgate, and Incest - Larry Scanlon
Gower's Jews - Robert F. Yeager
Letters of Old Age: The Advocacy of Peace in the Works of John Gower and Philippe de Mézières - Yoshiko Kobayashi
Gower's Governmentality: Revisiting John Gower as a Constitutional Thinker and Regiminal Writer - Matthew Giancarlo
Gower's Speculum Iudicis: Judicial Corruption in Book VI of the Vox Clamantis - Robert J. Meindl
"The lucre of marchandie": Poet, Patron, and Payment in Gower's Confessio Amantis - Brian Gastle
Hidden Matter in John Gower's Confessio Amantis - Gabrielle Parkin
Writing the Cinkante Balades - Peter Nicholson
Gower in Early Modern Spanish Libraries: The Missing Link - Ana Saez-Hidalgo
Bibliography
"Each essay does one or more of the following: break new ground, deepen our awareness of the sophistication and originality of Gower's poetry, and expand our understanding of Gower's historical, cultural, and literary contexts and his place in them." SPECULUM
"This substantial, well-edited, and approachable collection of essays covers a number of the topics in which Gower studies is proliferating. . . . The collection will be a boon to medieval literary criticism generally." CHOICE
"The volume presents a broad range of interpretations pertaining to diverse aspects of Gower's trilingual oeuvre and demonstrates the sheer variety of approaches that Gower scholars are now pursuing." YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES
"This collection, arising from the Society's third triennial congress in 2014, richly demonstrates the interest of his oeuvre and the intellectual liveliness of Gower studies." PARERGON

Hardcover

9781843844747

June 2017

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$115.00 / £80.00

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Ebook (EPDF)

9781787440647

June 2017

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Title Details

392 Pages

2.34 x 1.56 cm

5 b/w illus.

Series: Publications of the John Gower Society

Series Vol. Number: 11

Imprint: D.S.Brewer