We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Lydgate and the Surplus of History.
- Authors
Cowdery, Taylor
- Abstract
This essay considers three historical poems by John Lydgate. I argue that, in his Siege of Thebes, Troy Book, and Fall of Princes, Lydgate uses poetic form to write about history in the negative. Rather than try to represent history in form, that is, he draws his reader's attention to the matter of history that his forms exclude. By attending to the way that Lydgate invokes this leftover quantity of historical matter, which he terms the "surplus," I cast light both on Lydgate's own theory of form and the theories of form found in his Lancastrian contemporaries.
- Subjects
ENGLISH historical poetry; LYDGATE, John, 1370-1451; SIEGE of Thebes (Poem); FALL of Princes (Poem); HISTORICAL poetry; POETRY (Literary form)
- Publication
ELH, 2018, Vol 85, Issue 3, p567
- ISSN
0013-8304
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1353/elh.2018.0021