A wide variety of texts (from chronicles to Chaucer) studied for evidence of medieval attitudes towards the processes of change as they affected individuals at all points of their lives.
Rites of passage is a term and concept more used than considered. Here, for the first time, its implications are applied and tested in the field of medieval studies: medievalists from a range of disciplines consider the varioustheoretical models - folklorist, anthropological, psychoanalytical - that can be used to analyse cultures of transition in the history and literature of fourteenth-century Europe. Ranging over a wide variety of texts, from chronicles to romances, from priests' manuals to courtesy books, from state records to the writings of Chaucer, Gower and Froissart, the contributors identify and analyse medieval attitudes to the process of change in lifecycle, status,gender and power. A substantive introduction by Miri Rubin draws together the ideas and materials discussed in the book to illustrate the relevance and importance of anthropology to the study of medieval culture.
Contributors: JOEL BURDEN, PATRICIA CULLUM, ISABEL DAVIS, JANE GILBERT, SARAH KAY, MARK ORMROD, HELEN PHILLIPS, MIRI RUBIN, SHARON WELLS.
NICOLA F. McDONALD is Lecturer in Medieval Literature, the late W.M ORMROD was Professor of Medieval History, University of York.
- ISBN10 1903153158
- ISBN13 9781903153154
- Publish Date 15 November 2004 (first published 1 January 2004)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 14 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint York Medieval Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 186
- Language English