ENGLISH

The lost history of Piers Plowman: the earliest transmission of Langland's work

By Lawrence , Langland , William;Warner

Book information

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN
9780812242751, 0812242750
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
4 MB (3755992 bytes)
Series
Middle Ages series
Pages
xviii, 117 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm\0
Time added
2020-07-26 19:24:52
-- 1330?-1400 -- Manuscripts;Langland-- 1330?-1400? -- Piers Plowman -- Criticism-- 1330?-1400?;Piers Plowman (Langland18.05 English literature;Manuscripts;Piers Plowmanetc;LanglandinterpretationTextual;LanglandWilliamWilliam -- 1332-1400 -- Piers Plowman;LanglandWilliam -- Piers Plowman -- Überlieferung;LanglanWilliam,William. -- Piers Plowman;LanglandWilliam);Langland

Description

According to received history, the poem exists in three distinct, chronological versions, the A, B, and C texts, with most scholars agreeing that Langland completed the B textùthe version most familiar to modern readersùaround 1377-78. Challenging much of the prevalent wisdom about the poem, Warner argues that the received B text is not an integral poem aligned with a single author but, rather, two groups of manuscripts, each of which, because of scribal activities, takes on varying amounts of what we now call C version matter. Through close textual analysis, he reveals that the B text is a conflation of an ur-B text with a collection of passages that belong to the C version of circa 1390, demonstrating that the circulation of the C text actually predates that of the B. --Book Jacket.

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