Publisher's Synopsis
This anthology of texts in translation covers one of the most important branches of medieval literary theory and criticism, the commentary-tradition, in one of the most significant periods of its development. The majority of the texts are here translated for the first time.;They offer discussion of such topics as fiction and fable (in classical poetry and in the Bible); the ethical effects and purpose of literature; authorship and authority; the function of biography in literary interpretation; stylistic and didactic modes of writing; literary form and structure; allegory and literal-historical sense; symbolism; imagination and imagery; the moralization of classical texts; the status of poetry within the hierarchy of the human arts and sciences; and the prestige and purpose of vernacular literature.;The editors have attempted to be representative, illustrating the continuities and the new developments, the typical and the exceptional, the well-known and the relatively obscure.;The selections are fully annotated, and provided with introductions which form a linked series of essays towards the history of medieval literary theory and criticism.
