Turner, Dr Marion

Job Title: CUF Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow
College: Jesus
Period/ Subject: Medieval

Email address: marion.turner@ell.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests:

My research interests lie in late medieval secular literature and history, especially Chaucer, the Gawain-poet, and political texts. The writings of Chaucer are at the heart of most of my work; and I am consistently interested in history and in theory.

My first book - Chaucerian Conflict: Languages of Antagonism in Late Fourteenth Century London - came out with Oxford University Press in 2007. In this book, I argue that Chaucer’s texts depict society as inevitably conflicted and antagonistic and suggest that critics have generally been too eager to see a ‘genial Chaucer.’ I examine his work alongside many historical documents (such as petitions and the guild returns of 1388) and other fourteenth century poems (such as St Erkenwald and Gower’s poetry).

I am now working on a book-length project about locations of literary production in the late fourteenth century, examining both actual places which functioned as crucibles for textual production (such as guildhall and parliament) and imagined locations for literary activity (such as gardens). I continue to be interested in examining canonical texts alongside less well-known writings, and in placing ‘literary’ and ‘non-literary’ texts side by side.

I am also currently editing a major collection for Blackwell’s about medieval literature and critical theory. This collection brings together around 27 major scholars and showcases how diverse theoretical approaches pertain to medieval literature, ranging from well-established theoretical approaches to new and experimental work in medieval studies.

Recently, I have been developing work in the area of literature and medicine, and have been working on late-medieval illness narratives, focusing on John Arderne, Thomas Hoccleve, and Chaucer. I am particularly interested in medieval authors’ awareness of the way in which narrative conventions are used by doctors and patients to try to make sense of pain and suffering, and of the problems of trying to contain suffering in this way.

Teaching Areas:

Old English; Middle English; Chaucer.

Recent Publications:

Books

Critical Theory Handbooks: A Handbook of Middle English Studies (Blackwells, forthcoming 2012) [as editor]

Chaucerian Conflict: Languages of Antagonism in Late Fourteenth-Century London (OUP, 2007)

Journal Articles

‘Thomas Usk and John Arderne,’ Chaucer Review 47 (forthcoming, 2012)

‘Usk and the Goldsmiths’ New Medieval Literatures 9 (2008): 139-77

‘Troilus and Criseyde and the Treasonous Aldermen of 1382: Tales of the City in Late Fourteenth Century London’, Studies in the Age of Chaucer 25 (2003): 225-57.

‘“Certaynly his noble sayenges can I not amende”: Thomas Usk and Troilus and Criseyde’, Chaucer Review 37:1 (2002): 26-39.

Articles in Edited Books

‘Writing Revolution,’ in The Blackwell Companion to British Literature, vol 1. 700-1450, ed. Robert DeMaria, Jr., Heesok Chang, and Samantha Zacher (Blackwell, forthcoming 2012)

‘Imagining Polities: Social Possibilities and Conflict,’ in Middle English Literature: Criticism and Debate, ed. D. Vance Smith and Holly Crocker (Routledge, forthcoming 2012)

‘Conflict,’ in Twenty-first Century Approaches to Literature: Middle English, ed. Paul Strohm (OUP, 2007), pp. 258-73

‘Greater London’ in Chaucer and the City, ed. Ardis Butterfield (Boydell and Brewer, 2006), pp. 25-40

‘Politics and London Life,’ in A Concise Companion to Chaucer, ed. Corinne Saunders (Blackwell, 2005), pp. 13-33

‘The Carnivalesque’ in Chaucer: An Oxford Guide, ed. Steve Ellis (OUP, 2004), pp. 384-99

Other Information:

College profile

College Website 

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