Chapter 1 Introduction. But What is the Point of Courtly Writing?
Part 1 The Hydra: The Court's Body and Its Wandering Heads
Chapter 2 Re-thinking Literature at the English Royal Court, Its Protagonists and Contexts
Chapter 3 Starting at the Bottom: The Authors
Part 2 The Messages Between the Lines. A Political Reading of Courtly Texts
Chapter 4 An Accurate Curriculum: Walter Map's De Nugis Curialium
Chapter 5 A Family Business: Gerald of Wales' Topographia Hibernica
Part 3 The Real World is Here. The Role of Courtly Literature between Factions and Crisis
Chapter 6 Surviving in the Upside-Down. Henry II's Courtiers under Richard I's Reign (1189-1199)
Chapter 7 Moving Text into Action. Local Careerism and International Crisis
Conclusion: Contingently Situated Literature and Courts Dynamics.