Medieval English texts and affects
narratives as tools for feeling
pp. 545-576
in: Thomas Blake (ed), The Palgrave handbook of affect studies and textual criticism, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
It is still open to speculation how culturally specific affect is, how it is represented in literary and other texts, and how textual encounters can invite affective responses beyond those elicited from their immediate readers. This chapter considers these questions with specific reference to a selection of key medieval English texts (the Old English epic poem, Beowulf , as well as the elegiac poems, The Wanderer and The Wife's Lament , and the Middle English texts Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and the anonymous Sir Gawain and The Green Knight ). It combines linguistic and literary analyses with ideas from the history the emotions to gain further insight into medieval apprehensions and poetic expressions of affect.