Medieval literature : criticism and debates /

This book is the first in the "Routledge Criticism and Debates in Literature" series, which is designed to "offer new perspectives on traditional and core subjects [with] essays [that] range from 'classic' and newer criticism to brand-new papers ... ideal for students approaching a topic for the first time." Of the collection's 38 essays, 21 are reprints, and all of those--many of them well known--are abridged. The essays are organized under nine bipartite headings (e.g., "Memory and Matter") selected to be "in interpretive tension with each other and ... deployed to resist critical shorthand, inside jargon, or suppressed premises," as Crocker (Univ. of South Carolina) and Smith (Princeton) write in the introduction. The result is an expertly curated selection framed by an introduction and extensive bibliography. That said, whether this collection is an "ideal" starting point for students is open to debate; this reviewer has difficulty imagining even very sophisticated undergraduates having the necessary background to follow the condensed history of disputation that forms part of the introduction, to take just one example. But the book will be ideal for advanced students or for faculty working up a new area. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. D. W. Hayes Lakehead University