The Grounds of English Literature
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
| ISBN-13 | 9780199230396 |
| Open Library | OL2715020W |
| Total publications | 3 |
| Coverage period | 2007 - 2007 |
| Language | EN |
The centuries just after the Norman Conquest are the forgotten period of English literary history. In fact, the years 1066–1300 witnessed an unparalleled ingenuity in the creation of written forms, for this was a time when almost every writer was unaware of the existence of other English writing. In a series of detailed readings of the more important early Middle English works, the author shows how the many and varied texts of the period laid the foundations for the project of English literature. This richness is for the first time given credit in these readings by means of an innovative theory of literary form that accepts every written shape as itself a unique contribution to the history of ideas. This theory also suggests that the impoverished understanding of literature we now commonly employ is itself a legacy of this early period, an attribute of the single form we have learned to call ‘romance’. A number of reading methods have lately taught us to be more generous in our understandings of what literature might be, but this book shows us that the very variety we now strive to embrace anew actually formed the grounds of English literature — a richness we only lost when we forgot how to recognize it.
The Grounds of English Literature
The Law of the Land
This chapter examines the form of Lazamon’s Brut. It starts by defining the term choreographia in 16th and 17th centuries, a passion for the representation of territory so general that it spans the graphic and verbal arts. It describes the different activities of cartography and narrative so thoroughly that it removes the distinction between history and maps. It implies the importance and stability of land in its ability to remain unchanged throu…
Right Writing
This chapter suggests that Orm finds an injunction to make writing the form of life, as if the making of the letters were itself a mode of devotion perfectible to the extent that writing could fill the activity of living. It implies that the principles of Orm’s method are embedded in practices and outcomes, and not explained in any conventional sense. It then attempts to explain how the writing of the Ormulum can be so impertinent, so brave, and …
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The Grounds of English Literature
The Law of the Land
This chapter examines the form of Lazamon’s Brut. It starts by defining the term choreographia in 16th and 17th centuries, a passion for the representation of territory so general that it spans the graphic and verbal arts. It describes the different activities of cartography and narrative so thoroughly that it removes the distinction between history and maps. It implies the importance and stability of land in its ability to remain unchanged throu…
Right Writing
This chapter suggests that Orm finds an injunction to make writing the form of life, as if the making of the letters were itself a mode of devotion perfectible to the extent that writing could fill the activity of living. It implies that the principles of Orm’s method are embedded in practices and outcomes, and not explained in any conventional sense. It then attempts to explain how the writing of the Ormulum can be so impertinent, so brave, and …