The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literature [Hardcover]

The twenty-eight challenging yet accessible essays in thisHandbookrepresent the best of current thinking in the study of Latin language and literature in the Middle Ages. This book affords specialist and non-specialist readers alike vivid insight into the field's complexities and into future possibilities for the work essential to the pursuit of medieval Latin studies.The twenty-eight essays in this handbook represent the best current thinking in the study of Latin language and literature in the Middle Ages. Contributing authors--both senior scholars and gifted younger thinkers among them--not only illuminate the field as traditionally defined but also offer fresh insights into broader questions of literary history, cultural interaction, world literature, and language in history and society. Their studies vividly illustrate the field's complexities on a wide range of topics, including canonicity, literary styles and genres, and the materiality of manuscript culture. At the same time, they suggest future possibilities for the necessarily provisional and open-ended work essential to the pursuit of medieval Latin studies. The overall approach ofThe Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literaturemakes this volume an essential resource for students of the ancient world interested in the prolonged after-life of the classical period's cultural complexes, for medieval historians, for scholars of other medieval literary traditions, and for all those interested in delving more deeply into the fascinating more-than-millennium-long passage between the ancient Mediterranean world and what we consider modernity.ContributorsPreface,Ralph Hexter and David TownsendI. Framing the Field: Problematics and Provocations1. The Current Questions and Future Prospects of Medieval Latin Studies,David Townsend2. Canonicity,Ralph HexterII. Latinity as Cultural Capital3. Latin as an Acqulóž