REVIEWS121 genius is also convincingly problematized. The name and role ofAdam Pynkhurst the scribewho worked on both Chaucerand Langland manuscripts, knowledge ofwhose litetary connections is beginning radically to change our sense ofliterary production in London, recurs throughout the argument as well. Finally, though, the argument Bowers makes relies on imputing motives that give rise ro action by Chaucer and by a cult ofChaucerians active in the eatly fifteenth century. The book triangulates references to historical records with open speculation and provocative theoretical statements like this one: 'The presence of the Other prevents the Official from coming fully into being. The presence of Langland...kept Chaucer from becoming fully Chaucerian and eventually compelling his Canterbury Tales to disclose what had long been repressed' (40). The end result is that this is a book one reads actively, fully engaged with the argument from the first page, agreeing, objecting, thinking. CAROLYN P. COLLETTE Mount Holyoke College Andrew galloway, Medieval Literature and Culture. Introductions to British Literature and Culture. London and New York: Continuum, 2007. Pp. 154. isbn: 0-8264-8657-6. $17. As English and other modern language departments expand their spheres ofstudy to become more interdisciplinary, this move towards greater contextualization of literature has necessitated new introductory textbooks for students. Publishers like Continuum are filling this need with surveys such as this one, designed for medieval period courses in British Literature and are offering an alternative to the introductions contained in standard multipart period anthologies like those published by Norton, Oxford, Longman, and Blackwell. With some minor caveats, Galloway's book is a worthy addition to the genre. Covering the seventh to fifteenth centuries, Medieval Literature and Culture covers a lot of ground concisely and in a variety of ways. It provides an historical orientation, discussion of the intellectual contexts, overviews of literary genres and critical approaches, and concludes with appendices on key dates, terms, rulers, and scholarly works. For the most part, Galloway avoids the pitfall of repetition in this overlapping structure, and his style is refreshingly free ofjargon and condescension. Its scholarship is up-to-date but conscious ofpast scholarly landmarks, and the only factual error I detected was the common misconception that only English puts 'The MiddleAges' in the plural (p.5), conclusively refuted by Fred C. Robinson m Speculum Vol. 59 (1984): 747-49 (Dutch, Russian, Modern Icelandic and some neo-Latin terms also use the plural). On the other hand, the discussion is genuinely informative and less superficial than one would expect from its brevity, enlivened by occasional anecdotes such as the way chivalry diverted resources from improving the means of production, and the appeal ofAnglo-Saxon to democratic political theorists. Galloway is perhaps best known for his work on PiersPlowman, and, unsurprisingly, there is a slight bias here towardsAnglo-Saxon and religious literature at the expense of another popular medieval genre, the romance. Layamon, forexample, gets mote space than Geoffrey ofMonmouth. This tendency is partially compensated by enhanced 122ARTHURIANA attention to medieval women's writing and experience. However, Arthurians will find scant discussion oftheir topic. Despite these idiosyncrasies, this will be an engaging textbook for many beginners and courses on medieval British Litetature. PETER H. GOODRICH Northern Michigan University amandaHopkins andCORYjAMES RUSHTON, eds., TheEroticin theLiteratureofMedieval Britain.Woodbridge,Suffolk: D.S. Brewer,2007. Pp. iv, 182. isbn:978-1-84384-1197.$80. Hopkins and Rushton's edited collection offers insights into the role ofsexuality in the medieval English literary and social imagination. Their introduction complicates the prevailingapproach to the topic, Foucault's theories ofsexualityas a function ofpower structures, by introducing Leo Bersani's less-cited arguments for the importance of desire and submissiveness in the sexual relationship. The collection as a whole tends towards a theoretical balance between Bersani's emphasis and Foucault's idea. Eschewingan explicit rubric, the editors overlap essays to create topical intersections across thevolume. In one cluster, Sue Niebrzydowski, Margaret Robson, and Kristina Hildebrandtake up textsthattheyreadasvalidatingfemalesexual desire. Niebrzydowski argues that the Wife ofBath's emphasis offemale enjoyment simultaneouslyvalidates the male role in the sexual relationship. In her essay, Robson reads Sir Degarre as 'a female fantasy,' made so by 'the possibilities for sexual adventure' in which women's sexual experience is rendered acceptable...