Medieval Cultural Studies: Essays in Honour of Stephen Knight (review)

This tribute to Stephen Knight by scholars with whom he has worked makes clear the breadth of his experience and influence. It features chapters by many of the leading lights of medieval and medievalism studies in Sydney, Melbourne, Wales, Scotland, England and the United States. The chapters canvas a wide range of subjects, clustered under the overarching theme of the application of cultural studies to the medieval. The chapters are grouped into sections, some more cohesive than others.

'Defining the Field: Medieval Cultural Studies' features very thorough analyses of the development and state of medieval cultural studies by David Matthews, who describes the scholars and movements involved, and by Thomas Hahn, who takes Robin Hood as a case study in cultural studies to give an account of the rise of medievalism. Also in this section, possibly slightly less well-placed, is an excellent chapter by Larry Scanlon, tracing the antecedents of modern pornography in medieval fabliaux and penitentials. Scanlon's insightful links between this modern genre and a range of medieval texts spanning an entire millennium are an important lesson in the enduring relevance of medieval studies to modern culture.

The next section is devoted to Robin Hood. An interesting paper by W. M. Ormrod investigates the authority accorded to written instruments and formal seals in the Robin Hood tales. Helen Cooper considers the provenance of A Tale of Robin Hood, emphasising its unusual aligning of Robin on the side of episcopal authority. Martha W. Driver examines the role of the rousing speech in Robin Hood literature from medieval text to modern spoof movie, noting the establishment of common referents and modes of expression. Thomas H. Ohlgren's chapter is about 'oppositional ideology' in the poems Robin Hood and the Monk and Robin Hood and the Potter. In each case he puts a compelling argument for empathy on the part of the manuscript compiler with the themes in the poems. It would have been interesting to see the argument for each expanded, although there was probably not space for that in this collection.

A tidy segue to the next section, on Chaucer, is provided by Helen Phillips's chapter comparing 'The Friar's Tale' with the Robin Hood tradition to demonstrate early familiarity with Robin Hood literature. Helen Fulton's chapter on the London street Cheapside gives a satisfying grounding in the material world: her discussion is concerned with the physical and social space defined by Cheapside and its literary and historical uses. Another broadening of perspective is offered by Henry Ansgar Kelly, who considers non-Christian communities in Chaucer's time, particularly in the context of crusading and Chaucer's Knight. His conclusion that 'the religion of their opponents was … of secondary importance compared to the kind of fight they could put up' is salutary – and not irrelevant to events of the last few years. Stephanie Trigg's treatment of the 'lewed peple' in 'The Pardoner's Tale' is characteristically thorough and insightful. She questions the accepted reading of the Pardoner's differentiation between his accustomed 'lewed' audience on the one hand and the pilgrims on the other, with the resultant humour of his confusion of the two at the tale's conclusion, arguing for a much more nuanced reading, where the distinction is not so clear-cut and the role of the 'consumer' is played with.

'The Cultural Politics of Romance' includes Sheila Delaney on the Yiddish romance Bovo de-Antona, Ruth Evans on Sir Orfeo and Diane Speed on the various versions of Otuel. Delaney emphasises Bovo's Jewishness, Evans focuses on the motif of sovereignty, and Speed explores how a narrative motif can be modified to reflect a particular attitude to chivalry.

The final section, 'Cultural Politics/The Politics of Culture', is a rather mixed collection. Margaret Clunies Ross's 'The Cultural Politics of the Skaldic Ekphrasis Poem in Medieval Norway and Iceland...