Literary individualism first manifests itself in the twelfth century in word puzzles and overt
self-naming as well as in discussions about the nature of writing and the role of the poet in
the world. Guillem IX Marcabru Dante Chaucer and Langland were poets and intellectuals.
This engaging study traces their claims of authorship not to a need for what modernity views
as self-promotion but rather to their interests in contemporary philosophical debates. Yet in
their creations of both history and fiction these poets anticipated modern narrative and its
literary persona.
