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Medieval Artistry and Exchange presents a fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of the economic, social, and political context of Medieval French epic, romance, and the Roman de la Rose. It examines the emergence of vernacular literature in medieval France in relationship to an unprecedented commercial revival which profoundly reshaped society. This work, which builds on literary, historical, anthropological, and linguistic studies, offers valuable insights concerning the way that literary texts and social context are both mutually informing as well as mutually reflective of the tensions inherent in the moment of ideological evolution they mark.
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"This is an excellent and very instructive study. I believe that Judith Kellogg has been particularly successful in tracing the progress of the intrusion of the emerging profit-oriented, credit-based money economy not only in the literary language of the period but also in the very conceptionalization of human interaction. Her achievement here is to have exposed one of the underlying and therefore elusive cultural assumptions informing the mentality of the time." (Jan A. Nelson, Romance Quarterly)
"...this is a book which deserves to be read and which can be recommended to students. Its readings of some texts ... are excellent, whilst it gives a clear exposition of the gradual but radical transformation the French economy underwent in the twelfth century, of how this might effect our understanding of the ideologies inscribed in literary texts, and of modern theory which can help us to read medieval texts more fruitfully. It certainly fulfils its aim to introduce important issues and to stimulate thought." (Simon Gaunt, French Studies)
"The book is written in a clear and elegant prose,... Kellogg has a talent for reflective and intelligent synthesis which draws together a number of familiar ideas in a new context, thereby forcing the reader to look at the works in question with a fresh eye. ...the work contains many fine insights, because Kellogg so assiduously avoids critical jargon, it is easily accessible to the specialist and the general reader alike." (June Hall McCash, Olifant)
