Relics and Writing in Late Medieval England - Tapa dura

'Fascinating study...This book constitutes an impressive contribution to our understanding of relics and relic discourse, and offers an important reminder of the reciprocal and interconnected relationship among discourse, text, and materiality in medieval culture.' -- Barbara Zimbalist Journal of Medieval religious Cultures vol 40:02:2014 'Relics and Writing is learned, intelligent, and well structures ... Malo's skillful distillation of the patterns of relic discourse should provoke further thought about the ways in which medieval literature patterns itself upon religious objects.' -- Elizabeth Allen Modern Philology vol 112:04:2015 'Anyone interested in the general question of how relics signified and functioned will benefit from reading, and pondering along with this thought provoking book... Malo's book forces us to think more carefully and explicitly about the dynamics that many of us have been taking for granted.' -- Felicie Lifshitz Speculum April 2015

Relics and Writing in Late Medieval England uncovers a wide-ranging medieval discourse that had an expansive influence on English literary traditions. Drawing from Latin and vernacular hagiography, miracle stories, relic lists, and architectural history, this study demonstrates that, as the shrines of England's major saints underwent dramatic changes from c. 1100 to c. 1538, relic discourse became important not only in constructing the meaning of objects that were often hidden, but also for canonical authors like Chaucer and Malory in exploring the function of metaphor and of dissembling language. Robyn Malo argues that relic discourse was employed in order to critique mainstream religious practice, explore the consequences of rhetorical dissimulation, and consider the effect on the socially disadvantaged of lavish expenditure on shrines. The work thus uses the literary study of relics to address issues of clerical and lay cultures, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and writing and reform.