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OverviewKing and Commoner tales were hugely popular across the late medieval and early modern periods, their cultural influence extending from Robin Hood ballads to Shakespearean national histories. This study represents the first detailed exploration of this rich and fascinating literary tradition, tracing its development across deeply politicized fifteenth-century comic tales and early modern ballads. The medieval King and Commoner tales depict an incognito king becoming lost in the forest and encountering a disgruntled commoner who complains of class oppression and poaches the king’s deer. This is an upside-down world of tricksters, violence, and politicized feasting that critiques and deconstructs medieval hierarchy. The commoners of these tales utilize the inversion of the medieval carnival, crowning themselves as liminal mock kings in the forest while threatening to rend and devour a body politic that would oppress them. These tales are complex and ambiguous, reimagining the socio-political upheaval of the late medieval period in sophisticated ruminations on class relations. By contrast, the early modern ballads and chapbooks see the tradition undergo a conservative metamorphosis. Suppressing its more radical elements amid a celebration of proto-panoptical kings, the tradition remerges as royalist propaganda in which the king watches his thankful subjects through the keyhole. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Mark TruesdalePublisher: Taylor & Francis Inc Imprint: Routledge Volume: 4 Weight: 0.476kg ISBN: 9780815364764ISBN 10: 0815364768 Pages: 236 Publication Date: 07 February 2018 Audience: College/higher education , Tertiary & Higher Education , Undergraduate Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationMark Truesdale completed his PhD in 2016 at Cardiff University, producing a study of the fifteenth-century King and Commoner tradition and its early modern afterlife. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |