Langland's Fictions

Langland's Piers Plowman is a profoundly Christian poem which nevertheless has enjoyed a wide general appeal. Readers--both religious and non-religious--have been drawn by the power of Langland's fictive imagination, the rich variety of imaginary worlds in his great dream-poem. Langland's Fictions examines the construction of the ten dreams which make up the B Text of Piers Plowman , and explores the relation of these dream-fictions to those realities with which the poet was chiefly preoccupied. This relationship is discussed under three main headings: "fictions of the divided mind," in which the poet's mixed feelings about matters such as the value of learning find expression in imagined scenes and actions; "fictions of history" in which the main events of salvation history are relived in the parallel worlds of dream; and "fictions of the self," in which Langland's doubtful sense of his own moral standing as a man and a poet apparently finds expression. This chapter also addresses the controversial question of "autobiographical elements" in the poem. John Burrow's lively study is a major contribution to our understanding of one of medieval literature's most enduring works.