Writing and Rebellion - England in 1381

In this compelling account of the "peasants' revolt" of 1381, in which rebels burned hundreds of official archives and attacked other symbols of authority, Steven Justice demonstrates that the rebellion was not an uncontrolled, inarticulate explosion of peasant resentment but an informed and tactical claim to literacy and rule. Focusing on six brief, enigmatic texts written by the rebels themselves, Justice places the English peasantry within a public discourse from which historians, both medieval and modern, have thus far excluded them. He recreates the imaginative world of medieval villagers--how they worked and governed themselves, how they used official communications in unofficial ways, and how they produced a disciplined insurgent ideology.

Summary

This account of the "peasant revolt" of 1381 demonstrates that the rebellion was not an uncontrolled, inarticulate explosion of peasant resentment, but an informed and tactical claim to literacy and rule. It focuses on six brief texts by the rebels themselves.

Product details

• Authors: Steven Justice, Justice Steven
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.12.1996
• EAN: 9780520206977
• ISBN: 978-0-520-20697-7
• No. of pages: 330
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 235 mm x 20 mm
• Series: The New Historicism: Studies in Cultural Poetics; The New Historicism: Studies in Cultural Poetics
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book; England, CE period up to c 1500, British & Irish history, c 1000 CE to c 1500, Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500, European history: medieval period, middle ages, HISTORY / Europe / Medieval