Essays in later medieval French literature

"Over the course of a career spanning five decades, Jane Taylor has shown commitment to the rehabilitation of the more neglected aspects of later medieval French literature. Essays in later medieval French literature honours Taylor's contribution to later medieval French studies and acknowledges the debt the subject area owes to her scholarship. The volume brings together original contributions from scholars who have worked alongside Jane in various academic capacities and who have directly or indirectly benefitted from her example. The essays both demonstrate their authors' link to this legacy, and concomitantly underline the vibrancy and breadth of approach which is the hallmark of current later medieval studies. They centre on a number of key issues in the field, including those that have characterised Taylor's work throughout her career: notions of literary self-consciousness and what it means to come after an avatar; issues of intertextuality and the appeal to past models in the creation of a new literary aesthetic or a new literary criticism; and interdisciplinary questions of translation, reworking and continuation. Essays in later medieval French literature seeks not only to illustrate the buoyant state of later medieval French literary studies but also, in so doing, to show how responding to the legacy of an illustrious predecessor has not pejorative but positive consequences."--Jacket.