Living On the Edge: A Study on Cultural Memory in Narratives from Medieval English Literature Before and After the Black Death

Abstract

This study concentrates itself on seven different Middle English works from the thirteenth and fourteenth century, namely 'The Owl & the Nightingale', 'Parliament of Foules', 'Land of Cokaygne', 'Wynnere & Wastoure', 'Piers Plowman', 'Ubi Sount Qui Ante Nos Fuerount', and 'A Disputacioun betwyx þe Body and Wormes'. By comparing these different works in sets of two (and in one instance, three), where one work is pre-plague and the other post-plague, this thesis shows how the impact and effects of the pestilence reflected in literary works from that period.