Imagining an English Reading Public, 1150–1400: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, cartea 79

Katharine Breen is an Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern University.

Examining the concept of habitus - acquired patterns of thought, behaviour and taste that result from internalizing culture or objective social structures - Katharine Breen argues that the adaptation of elite, clerical forms of habitus for lay audiences established the conceptual foundations for a reading public in medieval England.

Introduction; 1. The fourteenth-century crisis of habit; 2. Medieval theories of habitus; 3. The grammatical paradigm; 4. A crusading habitus; 5. Piers Plowman and the formation of an English literary habitus; Epilogue. The King's English.

'A thoughtful interdisciplinary study, Breen's work constitutes a valuable addition to the field of vernacular studies in the Middle Ages.' Mary C. Flannery, Times Literary Supplement
'Katharine Breen's book presents a bold and provocative re-envisioning of what it meant to write in the vernacular in late medieval England. This study thus encourages us to re-imagine what lay behind the great flourishing of vernacular literary culture in the late fourteenth century … [The book] presents complex ideas clearly, and I found it to be well argued. I am confident that it will offer a significant contribution to our understanding of late medieval English literary culture and the place of the vernacular therein. Breen's book raises more questions than it answers - the sign of a provocative study, for sure … It is a testament to this stimulating study that, by exploring the issue of vernacularity within the discourse of habitus, Breen has framed a question that can be explored in many new and potentially invigorating directions.' Michael Johnston, Medium Aevum