Gender and History in Medieval English Romance and Chronicle

Focusing on genealogical material, Barefield (English, U. of Massachusetts) assesses how certain stories contained in popular chronicles and romances change over time in response to changes in the circumstances of production from the 12th through the early 15th centuries. She argues that the conventional view that history was written for clerics and romances for courtly women to be too simplistic, showing how both genres were written by and for both sexes. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)