Overview
- Elucidates the complexity of economic thought animating medieval cultural production
- Applies modern and emerging economic theories to medieval texts
- Analyzes the specific economic and social conditions of late-medieval England
Part of the book series: The New Middle Ages (TNMA)
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- late medieval economics
- modern economics in medieval context
- Marxist historiography of the medieval period
- commercial economy of 14th-century England
- gift-exchange in medieval England
- economics of salvation in Medieval literature
- Judas in medieval drama and poetry
- Merchant of Venice
- The Southern Passion
- Medieval devotional literature and economics
- Wynnere and Wastoure
- economics and medieval collectivism
- medieval antimercantilism
- Dives and Pauper
- Franciscan theology and social inequity
- social strata in 14th century England
- Piers Plowman
- Karl Polanyi
- the medieval free-market
- economics in Chaucer
About this book
This is the first collection of essays dedicated to the topics of money and economics in the English literature of the late Middle Ages. These essays explore ways that late medieval economic thought informs contemporary English texts and apply modern modes of economic analysis to medieval literature. In so doing, they read the importance and influence of historical records of practices as aids to contextualizing these texts. They also apply recent modes of economic history as a means to understand the questions the texts ask about economics, trade, and money. Collectively, these papers argue that both medieval and modern economic thought are key to valuable historical contextualization of medieval literary texts, but that this criticism can be advanced only if we also recognize the specificity of the economic and social conditions of late-medieval England.
Reviews
“This collection is a valuable survey of recent trends in economic approaches to Middle English literature, with contributions by a number of well-known scholars in the field as well as emerging voices. … Most importantly, in the imagination and theoretical boldness that its contributors bring to bear, the book suggests how to do this scholarship well.” (Walter Wadiak, The Review of English Studies, October 30, 2018)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Craig E. Bertolet is Professor of Medieval English Literature at Auburn University, USA. He is the author of Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, and the Commercial Practices of Late Fourteenth-Century London (2013) and articles and book chapters on the intersection between medieval culture and its literature. He is at work on a book concerning the crisis of money in late medieval English literature.
Robert Epstein is Professor of English at Fairfield University, USA. He is the author of Chaucer’s Gifts: Exchange and Value in the Canterbury Tales (forthcoming).Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Money, Commerce, and Economics in Late Medieval English Literature
Editors: Craig E. Bertolet, Robert Epstein
Series Title: The New Middle Ages
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71900-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-71899-6Published: 16 February 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-89118-7Published: 06 June 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-71900-9Published: 07 February 2018
Series ISSN: 2945-5936
Series E-ISSN: 2945-5944
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 185
Number of Illustrations: 1 illustrations in colour
Topics: Medieval Literature, British and Irish Literature, Economic History