Literature As Recreation in the Later Middle Ages - 9781501746741

Literature As Recreation in the Later Middle AgesAuthor(s): Glending Olson\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cornell University Press, United States\nImprint: Cornell University Press\nISBN-13: 9781501746741, 978-1501746741\nSynopsis\nThis book studies attitudes toward secular literature during the later Middle Ages. Exploring two related medieval justifications of literary pleasureone finding hygienic or therapeutic value in entertainment, and another stressing the psychological and ethical rewards of taking time out from work in order to refresh oneselfGlending Olson reveals that, contrary to much recent opinion, many medieval writers and thinkers accepted delight and enjoyment as valid goals of literature without always demanding moral profit as well.\n\n Drawing on a vast amount of primary material, including contemporary medical manuscripts and printed texts, Olson discusses theatrics, humanist literary criticism, prologues to romances and fabliaux, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. .