This book examines the rise of an influential new family of poetry in the late Middle Ages, analyzing why the allegorical first-person romance embedded itself in the vernacular literature of Western Europe and remained popular for more than two centuries. “A stunning collection of essays on first-person allegorical narratives of the late Middle Ages that brings together an impressive group of scholars from different linguistic traditions.”—Katherine A. Brown, author of Boccaccio’s Fabliaux: Medieval Short Stories and the Function of Reversal   “North American and European scholars have come together in a constructive framework to underscore with insightfulness and precision the emergence of the allegorical exploration of love by means of self-referentiality, which facilitated the development of a new level of poetological reflections in literature.”—Albrecht Classen, editor of Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval European Literature “A stunning collection of essays on first-person allegorical narratives of the late Middle Ages that brings together an impressive group of scholars from different linguistic traditions.”—Katherine A. Brown, author of Boccaccio’s Fabliaux: Medieval Short Stories and the Function of Reversal   “North American and European scholars have come together in a constructive framework to underscore with insightfulness and precision the emergence of the allegorical exploration of love by means of self-referentiality, which facilitated the development of a new level of poetological reflections in literature.”—Albrecht Classen, editor of Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval European Literature R. Barton Palmer , Calhoun Lemon Professor Emeritus of English at Clemson University, is coeditor of  Machaut's Legacy: The Judgment Poetry Tradition in the Later Middle Ages and Beyond .  Katharina Philipowski, medieval German literature professor at the University of Potsdam, is coeditor of  Von Sich Selbst Erzahlen: Historische Dimensionen Des Ich-Erzahlens.   Julia Rüthemann , Feodor Lynen research fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris, is coeditor of  Körper-Ästhetiken: Allegorische Verkörperungen als ästhetisches Prinzip .