{"product_id":"middle-english-biblical-poetry-9781843846055","title":"Middle English Biblical Poetry","description":"\u003cb\u003eA new analysis of the neglected genre of medieval Biblical poetry.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMedieval England had a thriving culture of rewriting the Bible in art, drama, and literature in Latin, French and English. Middle English biblical poetry was central to this culture, and although these poems have suffered from critical neglect, sometimes dismissed as mere \"paraphrase\", they are rich, innovative and politically engaged. Read in the same gentry and noble households as secular romance, biblical poems borrow and adapt romance plots and motifs, present romance-inflected exotic settings, and share similar concerns: reputation, order, family and marriage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  This book explores six poems from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that retell episodes from the Old Testament: the ballad-like \u003ci\u003eIacob and Iosep\u003c\/i\u003e, two lives of \u003ci\u003eAdam and Eve\u003c\/i\u003e; an alliterative version of the Susanna story, the \u003ci\u003ePistel of Susan\u003c\/i\u003e; and the \u003ci\u003eGawain\u003c\/i\u003e-poet's \u003ci\u003ePatience\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eCleanness\u003c\/i\u003e. Each chapter identifies new sources and influences for the poems, including from biblical glosses and manuscript illustration. The book also investigates the poems' relationships with contemporary cultures of literature and religion, including with secular romance, and offers new readings of each poem and its cultural functions, showing how they bridge the chasm between medieval Christian England and the Jews and pagans of the pre-Christian Mediterranean world. It also considers reading contexts, arguing that the poems and their manuscripts offer hints about the social class and gender of their household audiences.","brand":"Cathy Hume","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48268231901435,"sku":"9781843846055","price":120.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/9781843846055.jpg?v=1772487524","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/middle-english-biblical-poetry-9781843846055","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}