ABSTRACT

This clear and engaging book offers readers an introduction to European Literary History from antiquity through to the present day. Each chapter discusses a short extract from a literary text, whilst including a close reading and a longer essay examining other key texts of the period and their place within European Literature. Offering a view of Europe as an evolving cultural space and examining the mobility and travel of literature both within and out of Europe, this guide offers an introduction to the dynamics of major literary networks, international literary networks, publication cultures and debates, and the cultural history of 'Europe' as a region as well as a concept.

chapter |11 pages

General introduction

part I|71 pages

Antiquity

chapter 1|11 pages

Introduction

chapter 4|11 pages

Performing culture

chapter 5|13 pages

Making literature

chapter 6|12 pages

Remembering the past

part II|65 pages

Middle Ages

chapter 7|10 pages

Introduction

chapter 8|10 pages

Desiring

chapter 9|11 pages

Searching for the Grail

chapter 10|10 pages

Reaching salvation

chapter 11|11 pages

Telling tales

chapter 12|11 pages

Self-fashioning

part III|69 pages

Early modern period

chapter 13|10 pages

Introduction

chapter 14|12 pages

Staging

chapter 15|11 pages

Reading

chapter 17|11 pages

Corresponding

chapter 18|11 pages

Educating

part IV|68 pages

The long nineteenth century

chapter 19|10 pages

Introduction

chapter 20|11 pages

Feeling

chapter 21|12 pages

Defining the nation

chapter 23|11 pages

Selling literature

chapter 24|10 pages

Emancipating

part V|68 pages

The modern era

chapter 26|12 pages

Breaking boundaries

chapter 27|11 pages

Ordering chaos

chapter 29|11 pages

Writing the city

chapter 30|11 pages

Changing Europe