New Perspectives on Medieval Literature, a book series edited by R. Barton Palmer and Tison Pugh, offers compact, comprehensive, and up-to-date studies of important medieval authors and traditions written by leading scholars. We asked R. Barton Palmer and Tison Pugh some questions about the series, which we’re sharing below.
Where did the idea for the series come from?
The series was proposed by a former acquisitions editor at the University Press of Florida. In our discussions, we agreed that what was missing in a number of areas of medieval literature criticism were useful handbooks introducing readers to an author in context as well as the body of relevant texts, with bibliographical information to guide further reading. We decided that the tone of these books should be scholarly, but not theoretical; engaged with contemporary questions in the discipline but not lost in the weeds of theoretical disputes.
How does this series make an intervention in contemporary scholarship?
The series does not engage, except tangentially, with the various questions raised within medieval literary scholarship. These books are, first of all, fact-oriented and information-heavy, and second, reflecting an appreciation of works from the medieval past that have attracted the attention of contemporary scholarship. Its concentration is on major figures and works, including those most likely to be featured in undergraduate and graduate education.
How has the series evolved over the years?
The first several books in the series focused on medieval English and French literature, including studies of Christine de Pizan, the Gawain-Poet, Chaucer, the chansons de geste, and British Arthurian narrative. We have increasingly looked farther afield, both geographically and thematically, with books on the Icelandic sagas and medieval perspectives on disability. We hope our series, like medieval literature itself, attunes readers to the transtemporal allure of past tales while simultaneously illuminating current issues and concerns.
What topics, authors, or traditions would you like to include in the series in the future?
We would love to see volumes on an array of authors, including Chrétien de Troyes, Margery Kempe, Dante, Hildegard of Bingen, Boccaccio, Hrotsvitha, John Gower, John Lydgate, Robert Henryson, and Gottfried von Strassburg. Literary traditions to be covered in future books include saints lives, Ovidian tales, dream visions, and mystical writings. A book on the delightfully vulgar French fabliaux would be especially welcome! Most of all, we enjoy working with authors passionate about their favorite medieval authors and literary traditions, and would be delighted to hear about ideas beyond these.
Scholars interested in proposing a volume for the series can reach the series editors here:
R. Barton Palmer
ppalmer@clemson.edu
Tison Pugh
tison.pugh@ucf.edu
For other queries regarding the medieval literature list at the University Press of Florida, scholars can reach acquiring editor Carlynn Crosby at carlynn@upress.ufl.edu.
Recent Books in the New Perspectives on Medieval Literature Series
Shop books in the New Perspectives on Medieval Literature Series and other medieval literature titles here. Use code ICMS24 for discounts and free shipping in the US for orders over $75.
R. Barton Palmer is Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature emeritus. He is the translator (and often editor) of a large number of medieval French and English works from the Middle Ages, including Beowulf, The Song of Roland, and the love narratives of Guillaume de Machaut and Jean Froissart. He currently works with a European consortium of medieval scholars interested in narrative and linguistic questions. He recently edited with Katharina Philipowski and Julia Rüthenmann, a multi-author volume, Allegory and the Poetic Self; their current project is a similar volume devoted to hatespeech in medieval texts. Palmer is one of the principal members of the editorial board currently producing, in thirteen volumes, the complete poetry and music of Guillaume de Machaut.
Tison Pugh, Pegasus Professor of English at the University of Central Florida, is the author or editor of over twenty-five volumes. His recent titles in medieval studies include Bad Chaucer: The Great Poet’s Greatest Mistakes in the Canterbury Tales, On the Queerness of Early English Drama: Sex in the Subjunctive, and Chaucer’s (Anti-) Eroticisms and the Queer Middle Ages. He also researches film and contemporary media, resulting in such works as Chaucer’s Losers, Nintendo’s Children, and Other Forays in Queer Ludonarratology, The Queer Fantasies of the American Family Sitcom, and Truman Capote: A Literary Life at the Movies.
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