The Making of the English Literary Canon from the Middle Ages to the Late Eighteenth Century

by Trevor Ross

Book Overview

An indigenous canon of letters, Ross argues, had been both the hope and aim of English authors since the Middle Ages. Early authors believed that promoting the idea of a national literature would help publicize their work and favour literary production in the vernacular. Ross places these early gestures toward canon-making in the context of the highly rhetorical habits of thought that dominated medieval and Renaissance culture, habits that were gradually...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0773520805
• ISBN13: 9780773520806
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.0"