O Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind! : Der Umgang mit dem Tod in der mittelenglischen Literatur

Author / Editor
Galler, Matthias.

Title
O Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind! : Der Umgang mit dem Tod in der mittelenglischen Literatur

Published
Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2007.

Physical Description
419 pp.

Series
Texte und Untersuchungen zur Englischen Philologie, no. 34.

Description
Galler studies the theme of death in Middle English literature and argues against the "pessimistic" dictum that the people and works of the late Middle Ages were primarily concerned with the transience of life, the dominant approach on this subject since Johan Huizinga's "The Waning of the Middle Ages."
Instead, Galler traces a distinctly "optimistic" perception of death founded on Christian salvation history, considering texts such as BD, KnT, TC, PardT, LGW, and several Middle English romances. He also discusses "questions of life and death beyond Christian tenets" (p. 399), examining Celtic narrative traditions and texts from classical philosophy and mythology.
In German.

Chaucer Subjects
Book of the Duchess
Troilus and Criseyde
Legend of Good Women
Knight and His Tale
Pardoner and His Tale