The Politics of Middle English Writing.

Author / Editor
Watson, Nicholas.

Title
The Politics of Middle English Writing.

Published
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Nicholas Watson, Andrew Taylor, and Ruth Evans, eds. The Idea of the Vernacular: An Anthology of Middle English Literary Theory, 1280-1520 (University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press; Exeter: University of Exeter Press 1999), pp. 331-52.

Description
Provides a history of vernacular writing in English from ca. 1300-1500, reducing traditional emphasis on the importance of Chaucer and his works by adding complementary emphasis on religious writing--Lollard and anti-Lollard, "Piers Plowman," works prompted by confessional pedagogy, and more. Addresses political, social, and dialectical concerns, along with the roles of Latin and French, in describing the development of the prestige and standardization of written English.

Alternative Title
The Idea of the Vernacular

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion