Graceful Narratives: Making Space and Time in Middle English Literature (Oxford Studies in Medieval Literature and Culture)

Graceful Narratives argues that the concept of grace functions as a form of literary theory in late-medieval English texts, generating dilated, deliberative narratives that resist linear plotting and create space for alternative outcomes.Drawing on theological, legal, and courtly contexts, Davis demonstrates that grace operates not merely as a thematic concern but as a formal principle that suspends temporal flow, disrupts predetermined plots, and enables narrative transformation.The book examines six canonical Middle English works in which grace plays a pivotal role: Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, The Tale of Melibee, and The Franklin's Tale; Julian of Norwich's Revelation of Love; Langland's Piers Plowman; and The Castle of Perseverance.Like lyric poetry, these graceful narratives resist temporal pressures associated with linearity and plottedness, forestalling closure and opening paths towards reconciliation and amendment.Reflections on grace in literary contexts produce expanded n