John Gower

de Russell A. Peck, R. F. Yeager

The topics of "selfhood" and "otherness" lie at the heart of these compelling new assessments of John Gower's poetry. Divided into three main areas - knowing the self and others; the essence of strangers; and social ethics and ethical poets - through this lens they examine the wide range of Gower's interests: the political, socio-economic, legal, medical, and theological issues that aroused the conscience and stirred the aesthetic of this trilingual Middle English poet. The collection also aims to clarify his place among peers and bring out his influence on subsequent writers in England and in Spain, well into the eighteenth century.