Rhetorical functions of landscape in early middle English literature

Abstract

This thesis explores the ways in which landscape is used, in texts from the English Middle Ages, in order to guide the response of the audience. It begins with an examination of the ways in which landscape was viewed more widely in the medieval period, especially the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, tracing literary theories derived from study of the Bible and arguing that these theories were likely to have been carried across into reading secular texts. I also examine some of the Biblical and classical archetypes that shaped literary understanding of particular landscape features.

Date of Award	2008
Original language	English