Diachronic History and the Shortcomings of Medieval Studies

Author / Editor
Simpson, James.

Title
Diachronic History and the Shortcomings of Medieval Studies

Published
Gordon McMullan and David Matthews, eds. Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 17-30.

Description
Whereas fifteenth-century writers such as Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Skelton wrote texts that engaged in "a kind of conversation" with Chaucer, sixteenth-century writers treated Chaucer as a distant topic of philological study. Simpson argues that this contrast is emblematic of English literary history as practiced today.

Alternative Title
Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion.