Parody and satire in the medieval cultural productions of the South West Midlands and Anglo-Ireland
Date
1998
Authors
Moore, Deborah Louise
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Abstract
This thesis explores the relationships between medieval parodic and satiric cultural productions (both literary and pictorial) of the South West Midlands region of England and Anglo-Ireland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The main works examined are: from British Library MS Harley 2253, Annot and John and Satire on the Consisto,y Courts, from British Library MS Harley 913, The Land of Cokaygne and Pers of Bermingham, and Bodleian Library MS Douce 104, the only marginally illustrated copy of William Langland's Piers Plowman. These works show the artists' adaptations of earlier European forms of parodic and satiric literary expression, as well as the pictorial adaptation of medieval iconographic traditions to express an acute sense of social and political awareness. The corruption of secular and religious institutional authorities, class inequity and colonial oppression are central themes in all of these works.