Arts Of Possession

Taking its titles from an Aristotelian phrase describing the efficient practices of managing a household, Arts of Possession looks at the way in which ways of living, the household and practices of having, became central issues in English medieval literature. Looking in particular at works such as The Canterbury Tales and Piers Plowman, as well as archival material and records, Smith argues that household practicses generated and formed the organising principle behind 14th-century romances, revealing the existence of a sophisticated economic discourse.