Malory and His European Contemporaries

Malory and His European Contemporaries PDF Author: Miriam Edlich-Muth
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 1843843676
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
A reconsideration of Arthurian compilations in the late middle ages, looking at the complex ways in which they reshape their material for new audiences.

A New Companion to Malory

A New Companion to Malory PDF Author: Megan G. Leitch
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843845237
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
A comprehensive survey of one of the most important texts of the Middle Ages.

The Gentry Context for Malory's Morte Darthur

The Gentry Context for Malory's Morte Darthur PDF Author: Raluca L. Radulescu
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 9780859917858
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Morte Darthur is investigated for its reflection of the contemporary political concerns Malory shared with the gentry class for whom he wrote.

The Complete Story of the Grail

The Complete Story of the Grail PDF Author: Chrétien (de Troyes)
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 1843844001
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 637

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Book Description
The mysterious and haunting Grail makes its first appearance in literature in Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval at the end of the twelfth century. But Chrétien never finished his poem, leaving an unresolved story and an incomplete picture of the Grail. It was, however, far too attractive an idea to leave. Not only did it inspire quite separate works; his own unfinished poem was continued and finally completed by no fewer than four other writers. The Complete Story of the Grail is the first ever translation of the whole of the rich and compelling body of tales contained in Chrétien's poem and its four Continuations, which are finally attracting the scholarly attention they deserve. Besides Chrétien's original text, there are the anonymous First Continuation (translated here in its fullest version), the Second Continuation attributed to Wauchier de Denain, and the intriguing Third and Fourth Continuations - probably written simultaneously, with no knowledge of each other's work - by Manessier and Gerbert de Montreuil. Two other poets were drawn to create preludes explaining the background to Chrétien's story, and translated here also are their works: The Elucidation Prologue and Bliocadran. Only in this, The Story of the Grail's complete form, can the reader appreciate the narrative skill and invention of the medieval poets and their surprising responses to Chrétien's theme - not least their crucial focus on the knight as a crusader. Equally, Chrétien's original poem was almost always copied in conjunction withone or more of the Continuations, so this translation represents how most medieval readers would have encountered it. Nigel Bryant's previous translations from Medieval French include Perlesvaus - the High Bookof the Grail, Robert de Boron's trilogy Merlin and the Grail, the Medieval Romance of Alexander, The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel and Perceforest.

The Manuscript and Meaning of Malory's Morte Darthur

The Manuscript and Meaning of Malory's Morte Darthur PDF Author: Kevin Sean Whetter
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843844532
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
An examination of the rubricated letters in the Morte makes a convincing case for the design being by Malory himself. The red-ink names that decorate the Winchester manuscript of Malory's Morte Darthur are striking; yet until now, no-one has asked why the rubrication exists. This book explores the uniqueness and thematic significance of the physical layout of the Morte in its manuscript context, arguing that the layout suggests, and the correlations between manuscript design and narrative theme confirm, that the striking arrangement is likely to have been the product of authorial design rather than something unusual dreamed up by patron, scribe, reader, or printer. The introduction offers a thorough account of not only the textual tradition of the Morte, but also the ways in which scholarship to date has not done enough with the manuscript contexts of Malory's Arthuriad. The book then goes on to establish the singularity and likely provenance of Winchester's rubrication of names. In the second half of the study the author elucidates the narrative significance of this rubrication pattern, outlining striking connections between manuscript layout and major narrative events, characters, and themes. He suggests that the manuscript mise-en-page underscores Malory's interest in human character and knighthood, creating a memorializing function similar to the many inscribed tombs that dominate the landscape of the Morte's narrative pages. Inshort, Winchester's design creates a memorializing tomb for Arthurian chivalry. K.S. WHETTER is Professor of English at Acadia University, Canada.

Traditions and Innovations in the Study of Medieval English Literature

Traditions and Innovations in the Study of Medieval English Literature PDF Author: Charlotte Brewer
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 1843843544
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Essays on the many key aspects of medieval literature, reflecting the significant impact of Professor Derek Brewer. Derek Brewer (1923-2008) was one of the most influential medievalists of the twentieth century, first through his own publications and teaching, and later as the founder of his own academic publishing firm. His working life of some sixty years, from the late 1940s to the 2000s, saw enormous advances in the study of Chaucer and of Arthurian romance, and of medieval literature more generally. He was in the forefront of such changes, and his understandings ofChaucer and of Malory remain at the core of the modern critical mainstream. Essays in this collection take their starting point from his ideas and interests, before offering their own fresh thinking in those key areas of medieval studies in which he pioneered innovations which remain central: Chaucer's knight and knightly virtues; class-distinction; narrators and narrative time; lovers and loving in medieval romance; ideals of feminine beauty; love, friendship and masculinities; medieval laughter; symbolic stories, the nature of romance, and the ends of storytelling; the wholeness of Malory's Morte Darthur; modern study of the medieval material book; Chaucer's poetic language and modern dictionaries; and Chaucerian afterlives. This collection builds towards an intellectual profile of a modern medievalist, cumulatively registering how the potential of Derek Brewer's work is being reinterpreted and is renewing itself now and into the future of medieval studies. Charlotte Brewer is Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University and a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford; Barry Windeatt is Professor of English in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Contributors: Elizabeth Archibald, Charlotte Brewer, Mary Carruthers, Christopher Cannon, Helen Cooper, A.S.G. Edwards, Jill Mann, Alastair Minnis, Derek Pearsall, Corinne Saunders, James Simpson, A.C. Spearing, Jacqueline Tasioulas, Robert Yeager, Barry Windeatt.

Romancing Treason

Romancing Treason PDF Author: Megan Leitch
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191036854
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Romancing Treason addresses the scope and significance of the secular literary culture of the Wars of the Roses, and especially of the Middle English romances that were distinctively written in prose during this period. Megan Leitch argues that the pervasive textual presence of treason during the decades c.1437-c.1497 suggests a way of conceptualising the understudied space between the Lancastrian literary culture of the early fifteenth century and the Tudor literary cultures of the early and mid-sixteenth century. Drawing upon theories of political discourse and interpellation, and of the power of language to shape social identities, this book explores the ways in which, in this textual culture, treason is both a source of anxieties about community and identity, and a way of responding to those concerns. Despite the context of decades of civil war, treason is an understudied theme even with regards to Thomas Malory's celebrated prose romance, the Morte Darthur. Leitch accordingly provides a double contribution to Malory criticism by addressing the Morte Darthur's engagement with treason, and by reading the Morte in the hitherto neglected context of the prose romances and other secular literature written by Malory's English contemporaries. This book also offers new insights into the nature and possibilities of the medieval romance genre and sheds light on understudied texts such as the prose Siege of Thebes and Siege of Troy, and the romances William Caxton translated from French. More broadly, this book contributes to reconsiderations of the relationship between medieval and early modern culture by focusing on a comparatively neglected sixty-year interval — the interval that is customarily the dividing line, the 'no man's land' between well—but separately-studied periods in English literary studies.

Malory's Contemporary Audience

Malory's Contemporary Audience PDF Author: Thomas Crofts
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 9781843840855
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
"This book seeks to place Malory's Morte Darthur more firmly in its cultural and historical context. Its composition, in the mid to late fifteenth century, took place at a time of great upheaval for England, a period beginning with the loss of Bordeaux (and the Hundred Years War) and ending with the rise of Richard III. During this time the Morte was translated from numerous French sources, copied by scribes, and, finally, in July 1485, printed by William Caxton. The author argues that in this unique production history are reflected the ideological crises which loomed so massively over England's ruling class in the fifteenth century; and that the book is in fact inseparable from these crises."--BOOK JACKET.

A Companion to Malory

A Companion to Malory PDF Author: Elizabeth Archibald
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 0859915204
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Malory's Morte Darthur - text, history and reception - expertly appraised by international scholars. This collection of original essays by an international group of distinguished medievalists provides a comprehensive introduction to the great work of Sir Thomas Malory, which will be indispensable for both students and scholars. It is divided into three main sections, on Malory in context, the art of the Morte Darthur, and its reception in later years. As well as essays on the eight tales which make up the Morte Darthur, there are studies ofthe relationship between the Winchestermanuscript and Caxton's and later editions; the political and social context in which Malory wrote; his style and sources; and his treatment of two key concepts in Arthurian literature, chivalry and the representation of women. The volume also includes a brief biography of Malory with a list of the historical records relating to him and his family. It ends with a discussion of the reception of the Morte Darthurfrom the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, and a select bibliography. Contributors: P.J.C. FIELD, FELICITY RIDDY, RICHARD BARBER, ELIZABETH EDWARDS, TERENCE MCCARTHY, CAROL MEALE, JEREMY SMITH, ELIZABETH ARCHIBALD, BARBARA NOLAN, HELEN COOPER, JILL MANN, DAVID BENSON, A.S.G. EDWARDS

Emotions in Medieval Arthurian Literature

Emotions in Medieval Arthurian Literature PDF Author: Frank Brandsma
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843844214
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
Analysis of how emotion is pictured in Arthurian legend.