Reading Medieval Culture: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Hanning ed. by Robert M. Stein and Sandra Pierson Prior (review)

REVIEWS83 chalked up to different scholarly perspectives. Some ofthe papets do extend far into the fifteenth century, while others are concerned more with Windsor Castle than its chapel as such. Nevertheless this collection is very good and srands as a worthy companion to another collection, St George's Chapel, Windsor, in the Late Middle Ages (2001). Ifnothing else, the initial essays serve to illustrate the perennial appeal, and some of the drawbacks, ofpractical Arthurianism. JONATHAN GOOD Reinhardt College Robert M. stein and sandra Pierson prior, eds., ReadingMedieval Culture: Essays in Honor ofRobert W. Hanning. Notre Dame, IN: University ofNotre Dame Press, 2005. Pp. 505. isbn: 0-268-04111-3. $37.50. ReadingMedieval Culture does what a gpodfestschrifiought to do. First and foremost, it honors the distinguished career of its dedicatee, Robert M. Hanning. Hanning, whose caieet (so far) has spanned four decades, covering an eclectic tange ofsubjects from the Venerable Bede to the Italian Renaissance, has produced groundbreaking work in medieval historiography, romance, Chaucer, and the twelfth-century Renaissance. A glance at his bibliography confirms that there ate not many subjects in medieval studies todaytowhich he has not had something insightful ro contribute. The editors of his festschrift, Robert M. Stein and Sandra Pierson Prior, have gathered together twenty original essays, written by a wide range of both eminent and emerging scholars—Hanning's friends, students, and colleagues. While not every essay in the collection is a page-turner, many—perhaps more than one might expect from rhe genre—do what Hanning himself has done so frequently—speak to us in novel and provocative ways that open up fertile areas for thinking about the Middle Ages. The editors remark that what Hanning often accomplishes in his own scholarship is elegantly to knit togethet the often untuly strands that marie the conflicts in medieval studies. He is able to play offclose leading against a cultural studies model or the free play of meaning against the power of the social order to constrain meaning. What unites the essays in the volume, they argue, are the ways in which, like Hanning, the authors account for the complex ways in which the texts they examine 'are situated in theit own time, mediated historically to us through othet texts and othet readers, and, finally, are read within the context of out own social questions and disciplinary structures' (3). The editots divide the essays into three sections that map neatly onto Hanning's scholarly interests. The first section takes up his foundational work on history and romance. Particularly striking in this section, though it is never mentioned, is the importance placed on social and literary geography, the intetsections of time and space, in the constructions of the particular identities—individual, ethnic, and religious—romance and history simultaneously bring into existence and naturalize. Essays by Nicholas Howe and Sarah Spense explore the relations of particular spaces—Jarrow and Saint-Denis—to the Venerable Bede and Abbot Suger respectively. Monika Ottet and Charlotte Gross explore the workings of time in history and philosophy. Otter's essay on the relationship between past and future 84ARTHURIANA in medieval history wiiting is one ofthe standouts in the volume, a delight to read. Nancy Partner and Marshall Leicester both read closely and against the grain ofthe texts they have chosen. Their virtuoso readings ofChristine Markyate and Marie de France respectively demonstrate the ways in which texts, far from being univocal, are sites ofsttuggle over conflicting meanings. Chrisropher Baswell and SuzanneAkbari both engage questions ofpolitical identity, exploring the possibility that something like national identity existed during the Middle Ages. While Akbari's reading of Richard Coer de Lion is fascinating, I preferred Baswell's more cautious approach to the issue of nationalism. I remain one of the few skeptics who still believe, contra Akbari, that the question ofmedieval nationalisms is far from settled. The second section is devoted to Chaucer studies. Several of the essays in this section focus on gender, primarily in The Canterbury Tales. Petet Travis and Margaret Pappano explore masculinity, while Elizabeth Robertson and Laura Howes investigate rape and misogyny in Chaucer's works. Travis, who reads Fragment VII 'askew' (213), and George Economou, who writes about Chaucer's relation...