Author: Luke Sunderland
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843842203
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
Detailed readings of four major medieval cycles. This is a study of four colossal medieval works - the Cycle de Guillaume d'Orange, the Vulgate Cycle, the Prose Tristan and the Roman de Renart - which are normally considered separately. By placing them side-by-side for analysis, Luke Sunderland is able to argue for an aesthetic of cyclicity that cuts across genre. He combines detailed readings of the narrative infrastructure of each cycle with attention to the shifts and transformations that come with successive acts of rewriting. Old French Narrative Cycles focuses in particular on revisions and controversies around heroic figures, arguing that competition between alternative heroes within these texts makes them a discourse on heroism. Using a theoretical framework deriving from Lacanian psychoanalysis, the study reveals anxieties surrounding the hero's relationship to the "good" the hero oscillates between support for moral ideals and subversive assertions of freedom that can lead to evil and death. Ultimately, it is contended that the instability of the hero as conduit for morality produces textual confusion and generates the myriad differing versions of these vast and perplexing works. LUKE SUNDERLAND is Lecturer in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Durham.
Old French Narrative Cycles
Author: Luke Sunderland
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843842203
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
Detailed readings of four major medieval cycles. This is a study of four colossal medieval works - the Cycle de Guillaume d'Orange, the Vulgate Cycle, the Prose Tristan and the Roman de Renart - which are normally considered separately. By placing them side-by-side for analysis, Luke Sunderland is able to argue for an aesthetic of cyclicity that cuts across genre. He combines detailed readings of the narrative infrastructure of each cycle with attention to the shifts and transformations that come with successive acts of rewriting. Old French Narrative Cycles focuses in particular on revisions and controversies around heroic figures, arguing that competition between alternative heroes within these texts makes them a discourse on heroism. Using a theoretical framework deriving from Lacanian psychoanalysis, the study reveals anxieties surrounding the hero's relationship to the "good" the hero oscillates between support for moral ideals and subversive assertions of freedom that can lead to evil and death. Ultimately, it is contended that the instability of the hero as conduit for morality produces textual confusion and generates the myriad differing versions of these vast and perplexing works. LUKE SUNDERLAND is Lecturer in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Durham.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843842203
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
Detailed readings of four major medieval cycles. This is a study of four colossal medieval works - the Cycle de Guillaume d'Orange, the Vulgate Cycle, the Prose Tristan and the Roman de Renart - which are normally considered separately. By placing them side-by-side for analysis, Luke Sunderland is able to argue for an aesthetic of cyclicity that cuts across genre. He combines detailed readings of the narrative infrastructure of each cycle with attention to the shifts and transformations that come with successive acts of rewriting. Old French Narrative Cycles focuses in particular on revisions and controversies around heroic figures, arguing that competition between alternative heroes within these texts makes them a discourse on heroism. Using a theoretical framework deriving from Lacanian psychoanalysis, the study reveals anxieties surrounding the hero's relationship to the "good" the hero oscillates between support for moral ideals and subversive assertions of freedom that can lead to evil and death. Ultimately, it is contended that the instability of the hero as conduit for morality produces textual confusion and generates the myriad differing versions of these vast and perplexing works. LUKE SUNDERLAND is Lecturer in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Durham.
To Follow in Their Footsteps
Author: Nicholas L. Paul
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801465540
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367
Book Description
When the First Crusade ended with the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, jubilant crusaders returned home to Europe bringing with them stories, sacred relics, and other memorabilia, including banners, jewelry, and weapons. In the ensuing decades, the memory of the crusaders' bravery and pious sacrifice was invoked widely among the noble families of western Christendom. Popes preaching future crusades would count on these very same families for financing, leadership, and for the willing warriors who would lay down their lives on the battlefield. Despite the great risks and financial hardships associated with crusading, descendants of those who suffered and died on crusade would continue to take the cross, in some cases over several generations. Indeed, as Nicholas L. Paul reveals in To Follow in Their Footsteps, crusading was very much a family affair.Scholars of the crusades have long pointed to the importance of dynastic tradition and ties of kinship in the crusading movement but have failed to address more fundamental questions about the operation of these social processes. What is a "family tradition"? How are such traditions constructed and maintained, and by whom? How did crusading families confront the loss of their kin in distant lands? Making creative use of Latin dynastic narratives as well as vernacular literature, personal possessions and art objects, and architecture from across western Europe, Paul shows how traditions of crusading were established and reinforced in the collective memories of noble families throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Even rulers who never fulfilled crusading vows found their political lives dominated and, in some ways, directed by the memory of their crusading ancestors. Filled with unique insights and careful analysis, To Follow in Their Footsteps reveals the lasting impact of the crusades, beyond the expeditions themselves, on the formation of dynastic identity and the culture of the medieval European nobility.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801465540
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367
Book Description
When the First Crusade ended with the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, jubilant crusaders returned home to Europe bringing with them stories, sacred relics, and other memorabilia, including banners, jewelry, and weapons. In the ensuing decades, the memory of the crusaders' bravery and pious sacrifice was invoked widely among the noble families of western Christendom. Popes preaching future crusades would count on these very same families for financing, leadership, and for the willing warriors who would lay down their lives on the battlefield. Despite the great risks and financial hardships associated with crusading, descendants of those who suffered and died on crusade would continue to take the cross, in some cases over several generations. Indeed, as Nicholas L. Paul reveals in To Follow in Their Footsteps, crusading was very much a family affair.Scholars of the crusades have long pointed to the importance of dynastic tradition and ties of kinship in the crusading movement but have failed to address more fundamental questions about the operation of these social processes. What is a "family tradition"? How are such traditions constructed and maintained, and by whom? How did crusading families confront the loss of their kin in distant lands? Making creative use of Latin dynastic narratives as well as vernacular literature, personal possessions and art objects, and architecture from across western Europe, Paul shows how traditions of crusading were established and reinforced in the collective memories of noble families throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Even rulers who never fulfilled crusading vows found their political lives dominated and, in some ways, directed by the memory of their crusading ancestors. Filled with unique insights and careful analysis, To Follow in Their Footsteps reveals the lasting impact of the crusades, beyond the expeditions themselves, on the formation of dynastic identity and the culture of the medieval European nobility.
Thinking Through Chrétien de Troyes
Author: Zrinka Stahuljak
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 1843842548
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
This co-written book challenges assumptions about Chrétien as the author of a canon of works. In a series of exchanges, its five authors reassess the relationship between lyric and romance, between individuality and social conditions, and between psychology and medieval philosophy.
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 1843842548
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 214
Book Description
This co-written book challenges assumptions about Chrétien as the author of a canon of works. In a series of exchanges, its five authors reassess the relationship between lyric and romance, between individuality and social conditions, and between psychology and medieval philosophy.
Lettering the Self in Medieval and Early Modern France
Author: Katherine Kong
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843842319
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Each chapter focuses on a particular epistolary exchange in its intellectual and cultural context, from Baudri of Bourgueil and Constance of Angers, through Heloise and Abelard, Christine de Pizan's participation in the querelle du Roman de la rose, Marguerite de Navarre and Guillaume Briconnet, to Michel de Montaigne and Etienne de la Boetie, emphasizing the importance of letter writing in pre-modern French culture and tracing a selective yet significant history of the letter, contributing to our understanding of the development of the epistolary genre, and the pre-modern self --Book Jacket.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843842319
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Each chapter focuses on a particular epistolary exchange in its intellectual and cultural context, from Baudri of Bourgueil and Constance of Angers, through Heloise and Abelard, Christine de Pizan's participation in the querelle du Roman de la rose, Marguerite de Navarre and Guillaume Briconnet, to Michel de Montaigne and Etienne de la Boetie, emphasizing the importance of letter writing in pre-modern French culture and tracing a selective yet significant history of the letter, contributing to our understanding of the development of the epistolary genre, and the pre-modern self --Book Jacket.
Shaping Courtliness in Medieval France
Author: Laurie Shepard
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 1843843358
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
The question of what medieval "courtliness" was, both as a literary influence and as a historical "reality", is debated in this volume. The concept of courtliness forms the theme of this collection of essays. Focused on works written in the Francophone world between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, they examine courtliness as both an historical privilege and aliterary ideal, and as a concept that operated on and was informed by complex social and economic realities. Several essays reveal how courtliness is subject to satire or is the subject of exhortation in works intended for noblemen and women, not to mention ambitious bourgeois. Others, more strictly literary in their focus, explore the witty, thoughtful and innovative responses of writers engaged in the conscious process of elevating the new vernacular culture through the articulation of its complexities and contradictions. The volume as a whole, uniting philosophical, theoretical, philological, and cultural approaches, demonstrates that medieval "courtliness" is an ideal that fascinates us to this day. It is thus a fitting tribute to the scholarship of Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, in its exploration of the prrofound and wide-ranging ideas that define her contribution to the field. DANIEL E O'SULLIVAN is Associate Professor of French at the University of Mississippi; LAURIE SHEPHARD is Associate Professor of Italian at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Contributors: Peter Haidu, Donald Maddox, Michel-André Bossy, Kristin Burr, Joan Tasker Grimbert, David Hult, Virgine Greene, Logan Whalen, Evelyn Birge Vitz, Elizabeth W. Poe, Daniel E. O'Sullivan, William Schenck, Nadia Margolis, Laine Doggett, E. Jane Burns, Nancy FreemanRegalado, Laurie Shephard, Sarah White
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 1843843358
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
The question of what medieval "courtliness" was, both as a literary influence and as a historical "reality", is debated in this volume. The concept of courtliness forms the theme of this collection of essays. Focused on works written in the Francophone world between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, they examine courtliness as both an historical privilege and aliterary ideal, and as a concept that operated on and was informed by complex social and economic realities. Several essays reveal how courtliness is subject to satire or is the subject of exhortation in works intended for noblemen and women, not to mention ambitious bourgeois. Others, more strictly literary in their focus, explore the witty, thoughtful and innovative responses of writers engaged in the conscious process of elevating the new vernacular culture through the articulation of its complexities and contradictions. The volume as a whole, uniting philosophical, theoretical, philological, and cultural approaches, demonstrates that medieval "courtliness" is an ideal that fascinates us to this day. It is thus a fitting tribute to the scholarship of Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, in its exploration of the prrofound and wide-ranging ideas that define her contribution to the field. DANIEL E O'SULLIVAN is Associate Professor of French at the University of Mississippi; LAURIE SHEPHARD is Associate Professor of Italian at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Contributors: Peter Haidu, Donald Maddox, Michel-André Bossy, Kristin Burr, Joan Tasker Grimbert, David Hult, Virgine Greene, Logan Whalen, Evelyn Birge Vitz, Elizabeth W. Poe, Daniel E. O'Sullivan, William Schenck, Nadia Margolis, Laine Doggett, E. Jane Burns, Nancy FreemanRegalado, Laurie Shephard, Sarah White
Rebel Barons
Author: Luke Sunderland
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198788487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
Ambivalence towards kings, and other sovereign powers, is deep-seated in medieval culture: sovereigns might provide justice, but were always potential tyrants, who usurped power and 'stole' through taxation. Rebel Barons writes the history of this ambivalence, which was especially acute in England, France, and Italy in the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, when the modern ideology of sovereignty, arguing for monopolies on justice and the legitimate use of violence, was developed. Sovereign powers asserted themselves militarily and economically provoking complex phenomena of resistance by aristocrats. This volume argues that the chansons de geste, the key genre for disseminating models of violent noble opposition to sovereigns, offer a powerful way of understanding acts of resistance. Traditionally seen as France's epic literary monuments - the Chanson de Roland is often presented as foundational of French literature - chansons de geste in fact come from areas antagonistic to France, such as Burgundy, England, Flanders, Occitania, and Italy, where they were reworked repeatedly from the twelfth century to the fifteenth and recast into prose and chronicle forms. Rebel baron narratives were the principal vehicle for aristocratic concerns about tyranny, for models of violent opposition to sovereigns and for fantasies of escape from the Carolingian world via crusade and Oriental adventures. Rebel Barons reads this corpus across its full range of historical and geographical relevance, and through changes in form, as well as placing it in dialogue with medieval political theory, to bring out the contributions of literary texts to political debates. Revealing the widespread and long-lived importance of these anti-royalist works supporting regional aristocratic rights to feud and revolt, Rebel Barons reshapes our knowledge of reactions to changing political realities at a crux period in European history.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198788487
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
Ambivalence towards kings, and other sovereign powers, is deep-seated in medieval culture: sovereigns might provide justice, but were always potential tyrants, who usurped power and 'stole' through taxation. Rebel Barons writes the history of this ambivalence, which was especially acute in England, France, and Italy in the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, when the modern ideology of sovereignty, arguing for monopolies on justice and the legitimate use of violence, was developed. Sovereign powers asserted themselves militarily and economically provoking complex phenomena of resistance by aristocrats. This volume argues that the chansons de geste, the key genre for disseminating models of violent noble opposition to sovereigns, offer a powerful way of understanding acts of resistance. Traditionally seen as France's epic literary monuments - the Chanson de Roland is often presented as foundational of French literature - chansons de geste in fact come from areas antagonistic to France, such as Burgundy, England, Flanders, Occitania, and Italy, where they were reworked repeatedly from the twelfth century to the fifteenth and recast into prose and chronicle forms. Rebel baron narratives were the principal vehicle for aristocratic concerns about tyranny, for models of violent opposition to sovereigns and for fantasies of escape from the Carolingian world via crusade and Oriental adventures. Rebel Barons reads this corpus across its full range of historical and geographical relevance, and through changes in form, as well as placing it in dialogue with medieval political theory, to bring out the contributions of literary texts to political debates. Revealing the widespread and long-lived importance of these anti-royalist works supporting regional aristocratic rights to feud and revolt, Rebel Barons reshapes our knowledge of reactions to changing political realities at a crux period in European history.
Reconciling Copyright with Cumulative Creativity
Author: Giancarlo Frosio
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1788114183
Category : Copyright
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
Reconciling Copyright with Cumulative Creativity: The Third Paradigm examines the long history of creativity, from cave art to digital remix, in order to demonstrate a consistent disparity between the traditional cumulative mechanics of creativity and modern copyright policies. Giancarlo Frosio calls for the return of creativity to an inclusive process, so that the first (pre-modern imitative and collaborative model) and second (post-Romantic copyright model) creative paradigms can be reconciled into an emerging third paradigm which would be seen as a networked peer and user-based collaborative model.
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1788114183
Category : Copyright
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
Reconciling Copyright with Cumulative Creativity: The Third Paradigm examines the long history of creativity, from cave art to digital remix, in order to demonstrate a consistent disparity between the traditional cumulative mechanics of creativity and modern copyright policies. Giancarlo Frosio calls for the return of creativity to an inclusive process, so that the first (pre-modern imitative and collaborative model) and second (post-Romantic copyright model) creative paradigms can be reconciled into an emerging third paradigm which would be seen as a networked peer and user-based collaborative model.
Charlemagne in Italy
Author: Jane E. Everson
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843846713
Category : Italian literature
Languages : en
Pages : 409
Book Description
An exploration of the many depictions of Charlemagne in the Italian tradition of chivalric narratives in verse and prose. Chivalric tales and narratives concerning Charlemagne were composed and circulated in Italy from the early fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century (and indeed subsequently flourished in forms of popular theatre which continue today). But are they history or fiction? Myth or fact? Cultural memory or deliberate appropriation? Elite culture or popular entertainment? Oral or written, performed or read? This book explores the many depictions of the Emperor in the Italian tradition of chivalric narratives in verse and prose. Beginning in the age of Dante with the earliest tales composed for Italians in the hybrid language of Franco-Italian, which draw inspiration from the French tradition of Charlemagne narratives, the volume considers the compositions of anonymous reciters of cantari and the prose versions of the Florentine Andrea da Barberino, before discussing the major literary contributions to the genre by Luigi Pulci, Matteo Maria Boiardo and Ludovico Ariosto. The focus throughout is on the ways in which the portrait of Charlemagne, seen as both Emperor and King of France, is persistently ambiguous, affected by the contemporary political situation and historical events such as invasion and warfare. He emerges through these texts in myriad guises, from positive and admirable to negative and despised.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843846713
Category : Italian literature
Languages : en
Pages : 409
Book Description
An exploration of the many depictions of Charlemagne in the Italian tradition of chivalric narratives in verse and prose. Chivalric tales and narratives concerning Charlemagne were composed and circulated in Italy from the early fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century (and indeed subsequently flourished in forms of popular theatre which continue today). But are they history or fiction? Myth or fact? Cultural memory or deliberate appropriation? Elite culture or popular entertainment? Oral or written, performed or read? This book explores the many depictions of the Emperor in the Italian tradition of chivalric narratives in verse and prose. Beginning in the age of Dante with the earliest tales composed for Italians in the hybrid language of Franco-Italian, which draw inspiration from the French tradition of Charlemagne narratives, the volume considers the compositions of anonymous reciters of cantari and the prose versions of the Florentine Andrea da Barberino, before discussing the major literary contributions to the genre by Luigi Pulci, Matteo Maria Boiardo and Ludovico Ariosto. The focus throughout is on the ways in which the portrait of Charlemagne, seen as both Emperor and King of France, is persistently ambiguous, affected by the contemporary political situation and historical events such as invasion and warfare. He emerges through these texts in myriad guises, from positive and admirable to negative and despised.
L’Humain et l’Animal dans la France médiévale (XIIe-XVe s.)
Author: Irène Fabry-Tehranchi
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9401211078
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Ce recueil explore les relations mouvantes entre hommes et animaux, aussi bien réels que fantastiques, dans la France médiévale, dans une perspective interdisciplinaire. Les auteurs examinent la façon dont le rapport humain-animal a été imaginé, défini et remodelé dans la pensée, la culture et la production artistique du Moyen Age. La distinction entre l’humain et l’animal, fondamentale dans le texte biblique et la philosophie antique, a été remise en question au cours du XIIe siècle. Ce phénomène transparaît dans la terminologie utilisée pour désigner les animaux, dans leur représentation dans les arts et la littérature, et dans l’évolution de textes fondamentaux comme le Physiologus ou les bestiaires. Les frontières entre le monde humain et animal, fondées sur des critères comme la maîtrise du langage, la capacité à rire ou la responsabilité légale, ont profondément évolué et été remises en cause entre le XIIe et le XVe siècle. This is the first volume that explores the changing relationships between humans and animals, both real and fantastic, in medieval France, from a completely interdisciplinary perspective. The authors examine the way the human-animal rapport was imagined, defined and remodeled in thought, culture and artistic production. The distinction between human and animal, fundamental in the Bible and in Ancient philosophy, was challenged throughout the course of the 12th century. This phenomenon can be traced in changes in the terminology used to designate animals, in their representations in the arts and literature, and in the reworking of fundamental texts such as the Physiologus and the bestiaries. The borders between the human and the animal world, based on criteria such as linguistic ability, the capacity to laugh and even legal responsibility, evolved and were fundamentally reconsidered between the 12th and the 15th century. Irène Fabry-Tehranchi est enseignante en langue et littérature française et médiévale à l’université de Reading. Elle est l’auteur de Texte et images des manuscrits du Merlin et de la Suite Vulgate (XIIIe-XVe s.) (Brepols, 2014). Anna Russakoff est enseignante et co-directrice du département d’Histoire de l’Art à The American University, Paris. Elle est co-éditrice et contributrice de l’ouvrage Jean Pucelle: Innovation and Collaboration in Manuscript Painting (Brepols, 2013).
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9401211078
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
Ce recueil explore les relations mouvantes entre hommes et animaux, aussi bien réels que fantastiques, dans la France médiévale, dans une perspective interdisciplinaire. Les auteurs examinent la façon dont le rapport humain-animal a été imaginé, défini et remodelé dans la pensée, la culture et la production artistique du Moyen Age. La distinction entre l’humain et l’animal, fondamentale dans le texte biblique et la philosophie antique, a été remise en question au cours du XIIe siècle. Ce phénomène transparaît dans la terminologie utilisée pour désigner les animaux, dans leur représentation dans les arts et la littérature, et dans l’évolution de textes fondamentaux comme le Physiologus ou les bestiaires. Les frontières entre le monde humain et animal, fondées sur des critères comme la maîtrise du langage, la capacité à rire ou la responsabilité légale, ont profondément évolué et été remises en cause entre le XIIe et le XVe siècle. This is the first volume that explores the changing relationships between humans and animals, both real and fantastic, in medieval France, from a completely interdisciplinary perspective. The authors examine the way the human-animal rapport was imagined, defined and remodeled in thought, culture and artistic production. The distinction between human and animal, fundamental in the Bible and in Ancient philosophy, was challenged throughout the course of the 12th century. This phenomenon can be traced in changes in the terminology used to designate animals, in their representations in the arts and literature, and in the reworking of fundamental texts such as the Physiologus and the bestiaries. The borders between the human and the animal world, based on criteria such as linguistic ability, the capacity to laugh and even legal responsibility, evolved and were fundamentally reconsidered between the 12th and the 15th century. Irène Fabry-Tehranchi est enseignante en langue et littérature française et médiévale à l’université de Reading. Elle est l’auteur de Texte et images des manuscrits du Merlin et de la Suite Vulgate (XIIIe-XVe s.) (Brepols, 2014). Anna Russakoff est enseignante et co-directrice du département d’Histoire de l’Art à The American University, Paris. Elle est co-éditrice et contributrice de l’ouvrage Jean Pucelle: Innovation and Collaboration in Manuscript Painting (Brepols, 2013).
Transforming Tales
Author: Miranda Griffin
Publisher:
ISBN: 019968698X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
Transforming Tales argues that the study of transformation is crucial for understanding a wide range of canonical work in medieval French literature. From the lais and Arthurian romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, through the Roman de la Rose and its widespread influence, to the fourteenth-century Ovide moralise and the vast prose cycles of the late Middle Ages, metamorphosis is a recurrent theme, resulting in some of the best-known and most powerful literature of the era. Transforming Tales is the first book in English to explore in detail the importance of ideas of metamorphosis in French literature from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. This book's purpose is twofold: it traces a series of figures (the werewolf, the snake-woman, the nymph, the magician, amongst others) as they are transformed within individual texts; and it also examines the way in which the stories of transformation themselves become rewritten during the course of the Middle Ages. Griffin's approach combines close readings and comparisons of literary texts with readings informed by modern critical theories which are grounded in many of the ideas raised by medieval metamorphosis: the body, gender, identity and categories of life. Literary depictions and reworkings of transformation raise questions about medieval understandings of the differences between human and animal, man and woman, God and man, life and death--these are the questions explored in Transforming Tales.
Publisher:
ISBN: 019968698X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 283
Book Description
Transforming Tales argues that the study of transformation is crucial for understanding a wide range of canonical work in medieval French literature. From the lais and Arthurian romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, through the Roman de la Rose and its widespread influence, to the fourteenth-century Ovide moralise and the vast prose cycles of the late Middle Ages, metamorphosis is a recurrent theme, resulting in some of the best-known and most powerful literature of the era. Transforming Tales is the first book in English to explore in detail the importance of ideas of metamorphosis in French literature from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. This book's purpose is twofold: it traces a series of figures (the werewolf, the snake-woman, the nymph, the magician, amongst others) as they are transformed within individual texts; and it also examines the way in which the stories of transformation themselves become rewritten during the course of the Middle Ages. Griffin's approach combines close readings and comparisons of literary texts with readings informed by modern critical theories which are grounded in many of the ideas raised by medieval metamorphosis: the body, gender, identity and categories of life. Literary depictions and reworkings of transformation raise questions about medieval understandings of the differences between human and animal, man and woman, God and man, life and death--these are the questions explored in Transforming Tales.