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Article: Medieval literature and historical enquiry.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Modern Language Review
- Article date:
- October 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Modern Humanities Research Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Medieval Literature and Historical Enquiry by Derek Pearsall
Answering the criticism that the study of medieval literature has been appropriated to history, partly through the influence of Centres for Medieval Studies, this paper examines the history of historicism, including New Historicism, in medieval literary studies and finds that it has contributed to important advances in the understanding of the literature of the past. The greater threat to the study of literature as literature is posed by politically driven interpretation, based on modern agendas to do with class, gender, and race. The paper ends with a reaffirmation and demonstration, from the work of ...