Medieval Literature

Between us, the medievalists have wide-ranging interests in the comparative study of English medieval literature and culture and their European relations, from the earliest Old English poetry through Early Modern, and extending to literature written in Britain in French (Anglo-Norman) and Latin. We work in medieval philosophy and modern theory, in theology and psychoanalysis, in poetics and book history, and in genres including drama, dream-vision, romance, "vernacular theology" and prose history and fiction. We have written on Chaucer, Langland, the works of theĀ Gawain-manuscript, the English Bible, and much fifteenth-century poetry, drama and prose (including writing by Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich and Eleanor Hull). Our current work is in voice and in medieval notions of Christian empire (Lawton), and in the history of emotions, with special attention to envy and penitential constructions of affect (Rosenfeld).

Faculty Experts