Betwixt Engelaunde and Englene Londe

This study explores the somewhat neglected area of dramatic genres of early English religious lyric and illuminates the functions of dialogue as an instrument of devotion and cognition in the context of medieval culture. The book focuses on short poems in dialogue form, semi-dialogic prayers and dramatic monologues, and alleged dialogic configurations of the lyrics, stressing their potential for performance. Devotional dialogues, as between Jesus and Mary, are shown to have the form of mutual begging, in accordance with the central medieval ritual of supplication. Dialogue as heteroglossia provides the basis for readings of selected prayers from Cædmon to Lydgate, highlighting a variety of cultural transactions involved in addressing heaven. Tracing the ways the poems overcome the limits of language in search of transcendent communication leads to insights into vernacular poetics and theology inherent in early English religious verse.

Barbara Kowalik is Professor of English literature at the University of Warsaw. For many years she taught at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University of Lublin. She was a visiting scholar at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford and taught Polish literature at American universities. She is a member of The European Society for the Study of English and the International Association of the University Professors of English, and is currently the editor of Acta Philologica at the University of Warsaw. She has authored a book on the symbolism of space in the Pearl manuscript (1997), a book on woman’s pastoral in Barbara Pym’s fiction (2002), and numerous articles and reviews.