Includes bibliographical references (pages [299]-317) and index.

Machine generated contents note: Chronology; Introduction: medieval English culture and its companions /Andrew Galloway; Part I. Theaters of Culture: Political, Legal, Material: 1. From court to nation / Scott Waugh; 2. The legal revolution and the discourse of dispute in the twelfth century / Paul Hyams; 3. Archaeology and post-Conquest England / David Hinton; Part II. Cultural Ideals and Cultural Conflicts: 4. Social ideals and social disruption / Richard Kaeuper; 5. 'Celtic' visions of England / David Dumville; 6. The idea of sanctity and the uncanonized life of Margery Kempe / Rebecca Krug; Part III. Literacies, Languages, and Literatures: 7. Visual texts in post-Conquest England / Laura Kendrick; 8. Literacy, schooling, universities / Ralph Hanna; 9. Anglo-Latin literature in the later Middle Ages / David Carlson; 10. The vernaculars of medieval England, 1170-1350 / Elaine Treharne; 11. English literary voices, 1350-1500 / David Lawton; Part IV. Legacies and Re-creations: 12. Literary reformations of the Middle Ages / Helen Cooper; 13. Re-creating the Middle Ages / Clare Simmons; Guide to further reading; Index.

"This "companion" is designed to introduce a range of materials deemed to constitute the culture (or, perhaps better, cultures) of medieval England, from approximately the Norman Conquest to roughly the Reformation. The fields presented here may offer a rather unusual fit with standard courses and disciplines, but the pressures on modern frameworks are intended. It is not unusual, however, for study of early periods to offer some combination of "literature," "history," "archaeology," "art history," or other field. Studies in antiquity and the Renaissance do this regularly; and medieval studies was from the outset defined in an equally capacious frame"--

"The cultural life of England over the long period from the Norman Conquest to the Reformation was rich and varied, in ways that scholars are only now beginning to understand in detail. This Companion introduces a wide range of materials that constitute the culture, or cultures, of medieval England, across fields including political and legal history, archaeology, social history, art history, religion and the history of education. Above all it looks at the literature of medieval England in Latin, French and English, plus post-medieval perspectives on the 'Middle Ages'. In a linked series of essays experts in these areas show the complex relationships between them, building up a broad account of rich patterns of life and literature in this period. The essays are supplemented by a chronology and guide to further reading, helping students build on the unique access this volume provides to what can seem a very foreign culture"--