Ricardian Writers and the Consolidation of Middle English Literature

Abstract

This article has the purpose of highlighting the conditions in which from the last decades of the 14^th century the recognition of Middle English poetry as a prestigious practice took place in a context still dominated by French culture and literature. For that, I take into account a series of ideas posed by scholars and men of letters who from the beginning of the 15^th century onwards established the notion of an early literary canon by invoking the names of poets active during the Ricardian period, particularly those of John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer, identified since then as the founders of English literature. Then I point some of the traces common to the works of these writers and emphasize the significance assigned to literature as vehicle to the sense of belonging to a cultural community, surely one of the reasons that eased its acceptance by contemporary and forthcoming recipients.