'Piers Plowman,' Diversity, and the Medieval Political Aesthetic

Author / Editor
Steiner, Emily.

Title
'Piers Plowman,' Diversity, and the Medieval Political Aesthetic

Published
Representations 91 (2005): 1-25.

Description
Assesses the political character of late medieval English poetry, arguing that it extends the political thinking found in contemporary legal writing. Focuses on the notion of "diversity" in "Piers Plowman" and other alliterative verse as an extension of Continental legal thought and explores contrasts between Langland's "field of folk" and Chaucer's "sundry folk" in GP.

Chaucer Subjects
General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.