Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context

by Erik Kooper

Overview

This book offers new insights into the rich and varied Dutch literature of the Middle Ages. Sixteen essays written by top scholars consider this literature in the context of the social, historical and cultural developments of the period in which it took shape. The collection includes studies of the most representative authors, genres and works of the time. A comparative chronological survey provides an overview of the main cultural, historical and literary events in Europe and the Netherlands between 1150 and 1500, and the bibliography lists English translations of medieval Dutch texts discussed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521402224
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/08/1994
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature , #21
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.94(d)

Table of Contents

List of contributors; Preface; Map; Introduction Erik Kooper; Part I. Court and City: 1. Court and city culture in the Low Countries from 1100 to 1530 W. Prevenier; 2. Middle Dutch literature at court (with special reference to the court of Holland-Bavaria) Frits van Oostrom; 3. Heralds, knights and travelling Wim van Anrooij; 4. The rise of urban literature in the Low Countries Herman Pleij; Part II. The World of Chivalry: 5. Middle Dutch Charlemagne romances and the oral tradition of the chansons de geste Evert van den Berg and Bart Besamusca; 6. The prologue to Arturs doet, the Middle Dutch translation of La Mort le Roi Artu in the Lancelot Compilation Bart Besamusca and Orlanda S. H. Lie; 7. The Roman van Walewein, an episodic Arthurian romance J. D. Janssens; Part III. Reynard the Fox: 8. Words and deeds in the Middle Dutch Reynaert stories Paul Wackers; Part IV. The Literature of Love: 9. Dirc Potter, a medieval Ovid A. M. J. van Buuren; 10. Hovedans: fourteenth-century dancing songs in the Rhine and Meuse area Frank Willaert; Part V. Religious Literature: 11. The saint and the world: the Middle Dutch Voyage of Saint Brendan Clara Strijbosch; 12. Hadewijch: mystic poetry and courtly love J. Reynaert; 13. The Modern Devotion and innovation in Middle Dutch literature Th. Mertens; Part VI. Artes Texts: 14. A fourteenth-century vernacular poetics: Jan van Boendale's 'How Writers Should Write' (with a Modern English translation of the text by Erik Kooper) W. P. Gerritsen, H. van Dijk, Orlanda S. H. Lie and A. M. J. van Buuren; 15. From food therapy to cookery-book Ria Jansen-Sieben; Part VII. Drama: 16. The drama texts in the Van Hulthem manuscript H. van Dijk; Appendix A: bibliography of translations; Appendix B: chronological table; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"the volume contains much that is fascinating, plus some true treasures of discovery....Erik Kooper's volume, which contains a useful bibliography of translations and an excellent four-column chronology, instructively complements the English-based collaboration edited by Caroline Barron and Nigel Saul....It certainly deepens the fascination of this shifting, densely populated bloc of European territories, native ground to anxieties and fantasies that will flower through Bosch and Brueghel and so inaugurate, some might say, the ego's era." David Wallace, Studies in the Age of Chaucer

From the Publisher