Awards

• Winner of R H Gapper Book Prize 2010.
• Winner of Winner of the R.H.Gapper Book Prize 2010.

Overview

The Familiar Enemy re-examines the linguistic, literary, and cultural identities of England and France within the context of the Hundred Years War. During this war, two profoundly intertwined peoples developed complex strategies for expressing their aggressively intimate relationship. This special connection between the English and the French has endured into the modern period as a model for Western nationhood. Ardis Butterfield reassesses the concept of 'nation' in this period through a wide-ranging discussion of writing produced in war, truce, or exile from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, concluding with reflections on the retrospective views of this conflict created by the trials of Jeanne d'Arc and by Shakespeare's Henry V. She considers authors writing in French, 'Anglo-Norman', English, and the comic tradition of Anglo-French 'jargon', including Machaut, Deschamps, Froissart, Chaucer, Gower, Charles d'Orléans, as well as many lesser-known or anonymous works. Traditionally Chaucer has been seen as a quintessentially English author. This book argues that he needs to be resituated within the deeply francophone context, not only of England but the wider multilingual cultural geography of medieval Europe. It thus suggests that a modern understanding of what 'English' might have meant in the fourteenth century cannot be separated from 'French', and that this has far-reaching implications both for our understanding of English and the English, and of French and the French.

Full Product Details

9780199657704

Table of Contents

Reviews

This will be recognized as one of the most important books in Middle English and Chaucer Studies of the last thirty years ... it offers illuminating long perspectives on contemporary debates on where and when nationhood begins and ends, and on how linguistic practices mesh with territorial and political structuresa brilliant and timely book. David Wallace, Queen Mary Medieval Studies This is a huge, learned and highly intelligent book ... The Familiar Enemy is destined to crucially re-shape the debate on the French angle of English literary history and to move that debate to the centre of Middle English studies. It will remain on reading lists for decades to come. Andrew James Johnstone, Anglia

<br> [A] substantial work of scholarship...Highly recommended. --Choice<p><br>

This is a huge, learned and highly intelligent book ... The Familiar Enemy is destined to crucially re-shape the debate on the French angle of English literary history and to move that debate to the centre of Middle English studies. It will remain on reading lists for decades to come. * Andrew James Johnstone, Anglia * This will be recognized as one of the most important books in Middle English and Chaucer Studies of the last thirty years ... it offers illuminating long perspectives on contemporary debates on where and when nationhood begins and ends, and on how linguistic practices mesh with territorial and political structuresa brilliant and timely book. * David Wallace, Queen Mary Medieval Studies *

`If anyone wonder whether there was ever a time when the typical Englishman abroad could converse in a number of languages, I would recommend that they consult this book to find out.' Ad Putter, Times Literary Supplement `Butterfield advances several groundbreaking arguments, which she articulates with admirable clarity and supports with impressively meticulous documentation' French Studies `historians will learn much from this wide-ranging study by a leading scholar in the field.' S. H. Rigby, English Historical Review

Author Information

Ardis Butterfield has published widely on English and French medieval literature and music. Her books include Poetry and Music in Medieval France from Jean Renart to Guillaume de Machaut (Cambridge, 2002), an edited collection of essays, Chaucer and the City (Cambridge, 2006). She has recently been awarded a Major Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2008-2011) to work on 'The Origins of English Song'. She has given several talks and interviews on medieval literature and music for Radio 3 and Radio 4.

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