Confession and Resistance Defining the Self in Late Medieval England

Katherine C. Little

ISBN 10: 0268033765 / ISBN 13: 9780268033767

Editore: Univ of Notre Dame Pr, 2006

1st edition. 208 pages. 8.75x5.75x0.50 inches. In Stock. This item is printed on demand. Codice articolo __0268033765

Riassunto:

In Confession and Resistance, Katherine C. Little cautions that medieval selfhood should not be understood merely in terms of confessional practice. She points to the controversy over confession and, more generally, lay instruction that was generated in late medieval England around the heresy known as Wycliffism (or Lollardy). This controversy, she maintains, reveals the contested nature of the language of medieval selfhood.

Through her readings of Wycliffite sermons and polemical writings, Little argues that the Lollard resistance to confession should be understood as a debate over self-formation. For the Wycliffites, traditional confessional language had failed in its expected function—to define the self and to reveal the interior—and had to be replaced with new terms and new stories taken from the Bible. This new view of Wycliffism, as a crisis in the language of selfhood, allows the author to reevaluate the impact of Wycliffite ideas in Chaucer's Parson's Tale, Gower's Confessio Amantis, and Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes. Little finds in these texts, all of which include confession as a theme, a similar concern with the inadequacy of the traditional confessional mode.

Informazioni sugli autori:

Katherine C. Little is assistant professor of English at Fordham University.

Katherine C. Little is assistant professor of English at Fordham University.

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: Confession and Resistance Defining the ...
Casa editrice: Univ of Notre Dame Pr
Data di pubblicazione: 2006
Legatura: Paperback
Condizione: Brand New