Literate Laughter

This volume serves as an introduction to the critical principles and practices of the renowned medievalist Theodore Silverstein. It contains a selection of important essays by Silverstein which illuminate the formal achievement of a range of medieval poets from Chaucer through Dante to the authors of various Gawain romances. In the center, however, stands the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which is analysed from various perspectives. Together these essays exemplify a rhetorical poetics of medieval narrative. They are complemented by contributions on courtly love and literary allegory.