Author: Ben Ramm
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
This study aims to strip the legend of much of the mythological and folkloric association that it has acquired over the centuries, arguing that the Grail should be read as a symptom of disruption and obscurity rather than fulfilment and revelation.
A Discourse for the Holy Grail in Old French Romance
Author: Ben Ramm
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
This study aims to strip the legend of much of the mythological and folkloric association that it has acquired over the centuries, arguing that the Grail should be read as a symptom of disruption and obscurity rather than fulfilment and revelation.
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
This study aims to strip the legend of much of the mythological and folkloric association that it has acquired over the centuries, arguing that the Grail should be read as a symptom of disruption and obscurity rather than fulfilment and revelation.
Verginia, Lucretia, and the Medieval Livy
Author: Noah D Guynn
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843847353
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 135
Book Description
The tragic stories of Lucretia and Verginia, taken from the fourteenth-century French version of Livy's History of Rome, presented with facing page English translation. Livy was famous in the Middle Ages for what Dante called his "unerring" history of Rome. Within that history, two episodes were especially well-known, both promoting female virtue while also suggesting how sexual violence could trigger political change. Lucretia commits suicide after her rape, precipitating the fall of the monarchy. Verginia is murdered by her father, who prefers to see her die than be seized by the corrupt judge Appius; her death then inspires an uprising that overthrows the decemvirs, republican officials who abused the very laws they had codified. While these stories circulated widely in the medieval period, access to the Latin Livy was impeded by a scarcity of manuscripts. There is nonetheless evidence that some poets, notably Chaucer and Gower, knew Livy through the Tite-Live, a French translation by Pierre Bersuire that was completed around 1358, and borrowed from it for their own works. There are many manuscripts of the Tite-Live, though little of it is available to modern readers. This book helps fill that gap by supplying critical editions and English translations of Bersuire's Verginia and Lucretia episodes, along with those in the Roman de la Rose by Jean de Meun, one of the earliest vernacular writers to show interest in Livy. Each text features a substantial critical apparatus, which glosses difficult terms and concepts and elucidates historical events and social contexts, while an introduction provides other contextual information.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843847353
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 135
Book Description
The tragic stories of Lucretia and Verginia, taken from the fourteenth-century French version of Livy's History of Rome, presented with facing page English translation. Livy was famous in the Middle Ages for what Dante called his "unerring" history of Rome. Within that history, two episodes were especially well-known, both promoting female virtue while also suggesting how sexual violence could trigger political change. Lucretia commits suicide after her rape, precipitating the fall of the monarchy. Verginia is murdered by her father, who prefers to see her die than be seized by the corrupt judge Appius; her death then inspires an uprising that overthrows the decemvirs, republican officials who abused the very laws they had codified. While these stories circulated widely in the medieval period, access to the Latin Livy was impeded by a scarcity of manuscripts. There is nonetheless evidence that some poets, notably Chaucer and Gower, knew Livy through the Tite-Live, a French translation by Pierre Bersuire that was completed around 1358, and borrowed from it for their own works. There are many manuscripts of the Tite-Live, though little of it is available to modern readers. This book helps fill that gap by supplying critical editions and English translations of Bersuire's Verginia and Lucretia episodes, along with those in the Roman de la Rose by Jean de Meun, one of the earliest vernacular writers to show interest in Livy. Each text features a substantial critical apparatus, which glosses difficult terms and concepts and elucidates historical events and social contexts, while an introduction provides other contextual information.
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.
The Old French Lays of Ignaure, Oiselet and Amours
Author: Glyn Sheridan Burgess
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 184384253X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
New editions, with translations and introductions. The three narrative lays presented here form a sequel to the authors' French Arthurian Literature IV: Eleven Old French Narrative Lays, published in 2007. No new edition of Ignaure has appeared since 1938 and in the meantime this poem has generated a considerable amount of critical comment, especially as it provides the first full-length example in medieval European literature of the theme of the "Eaten Heart". Oiselet recounts abird's use of three truths as a means of escaping from the clutches of an uncultivated vilain. In the extant manuscripts these truths occur in two different orders, both of which are provided in the present edition. Amours, which follows the progress of a love affair between a nobleman and his beloved, has not been edited since 1878. All three poems challenge our understanding of the term "lay", especially if we regard the lays of Marie de France as defining the principal features of this genre. GLYN S. BURGESS is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Liverpool; LESLIE C. BROOK is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in French at the University of Birmingham.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 184384253X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
New editions, with translations and introductions. The three narrative lays presented here form a sequel to the authors' French Arthurian Literature IV: Eleven Old French Narrative Lays, published in 2007. No new edition of Ignaure has appeared since 1938 and in the meantime this poem has generated a considerable amount of critical comment, especially as it provides the first full-length example in medieval European literature of the theme of the "Eaten Heart". Oiselet recounts abird's use of three truths as a means of escaping from the clutches of an uncultivated vilain. In the extant manuscripts these truths occur in two different orders, both of which are provided in the present edition. Amours, which follows the progress of a love affair between a nobleman and his beloved, has not been edited since 1878. All three poems challenge our understanding of the term "lay", especially if we regard the lays of Marie de France as defining the principal features of this genre. GLYN S. BURGESS is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Liverpool; LESLIE C. BROOK is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in French at the University of Birmingham.
Sacred Fictions of Medieval France
Author: Maureen Barry McCann Boulton
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843844141
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
A study of the immensely popular "lives" of Christ and the Virgin in medieval France.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843844141
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
A study of the immensely popular "lives" of Christ and the Virgin in medieval France.
The Medieval French Ovide Moralisé
Author: K. Sarah-Jane Murray
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843846535
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1180
Book Description
First English translation of one of the most influential French poems of the Middle Ages. The anonymous Ovide moralisé (Moralized Ovid), composed in France in the fourteenth century, retells and explicates Ovid's Metamorphoses, with generous helpings of related texts, for a Christian audience. Working from the premise that everything in the universe, including the pagan authors of Graeco-Roman Antiquity, is part of God's plan and expresses God's truth even without knowing it, the Ovide moralisé is a massive and influential work of synthesis and creativity, a remarkable window into a certain kind of medieval thinking. It is of major importance across time and across many disciplines, including literature, philosophy, theology, and art history. This three volume set offers an English translation of this hugely significant text - the first into any modern language. Based on the only complete edition to date, that by Cornelis de Boer and others completed in 1938, it also reflects more recent editions and numerous manuscripts. The translation is accompanied by a substantial introduction, situating the Ovide moralisé in terms of the reception of Ovid, the mythographical tradition, and its medieval French religious and intellectual milieu. Notes discuss textual problems and sources, and relate the text to key issues in the thought of theologians such as Bonaventure and Aquinas.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843846535
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1180
Book Description
First English translation of one of the most influential French poems of the Middle Ages. The anonymous Ovide moralisé (Moralized Ovid), composed in France in the fourteenth century, retells and explicates Ovid's Metamorphoses, with generous helpings of related texts, for a Christian audience. Working from the premise that everything in the universe, including the pagan authors of Graeco-Roman Antiquity, is part of God's plan and expresses God's truth even without knowing it, the Ovide moralisé is a massive and influential work of synthesis and creativity, a remarkable window into a certain kind of medieval thinking. It is of major importance across time and across many disciplines, including literature, philosophy, theology, and art history. This three volume set offers an English translation of this hugely significant text - the first into any modern language. Based on the only complete edition to date, that by Cornelis de Boer and others completed in 1938, it also reflects more recent editions and numerous manuscripts. The translation is accompanied by a substantial introduction, situating the Ovide moralisé in terms of the reception of Ovid, the mythographical tradition, and its medieval French religious and intellectual milieu. Notes discuss textual problems and sources, and relate the text to key issues in the thought of theologians such as Bonaventure and Aquinas.
Virgilian Identities in the French Renaissance
Author: Phillip John Usher
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 184384317X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
"Virgil's works, principally the Bucolics, the Georgics, and above all the Aeneid, were frequently read, translated and rewritten by authors of the French Renaissance. The contributors to this volume show how readers and writers entered into a dialogue with the texts, using them to grapple with such difficult questions as authorial, political and communitarian identities. It is demonstrated how Virgil's works are more than Ancient models to be imitated. They reveal themselves, instead, to be part of a vibrant moment of exchange central to the definition of literature at the time."--Back cover.
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 184384317X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
"Virgil's works, principally the Bucolics, the Georgics, and above all the Aeneid, were frequently read, translated and rewritten by authors of the French Renaissance. The contributors to this volume show how readers and writers entered into a dialogue with the texts, using them to grapple with such difficult questions as authorial, political and communitarian identities. It is demonstrated how Virgil's works are more than Ancient models to be imitated. They reveal themselves, instead, to be part of a vibrant moment of exchange central to the definition of literature at the time."--Back cover.
The Logic of Idolatry in Seventeenth-century French Literature
Author: Ellen McClure
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843845504
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 255
Book Description
Idolatry was one of the dominant and most contentious themes of early modern religious polemics. This book argues that many of the best-known literary and philosophical works of the French seventeenth century were deeply engaged and concerned with the theme. In a series of case studies and close readings, it shows that authors used the logic of idolatry to interrogate the fractured and fragile relationship between the divine and the human, with particular attention to the increasingly fraught question of the legitimacy of human agency. Reading d'Urf , Descartes, La Fontaine, S vign , Molire, and Racine through the lens of idolatry reveals heretofore hidden aspects of their work, all while demonstrating the link between the emergent autonomy of literature and philosophy and the confessional conflicts that dominated the period. In so doing, Professor McClure illustrates how religion can become a source of interpretive complexity, and how this dynamism can and should be taken into account in early modern French studies and beyond. ELLEN MCCLURE is Associate Professor of History and French, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843845504
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 255
Book Description
Idolatry was one of the dominant and most contentious themes of early modern religious polemics. This book argues that many of the best-known literary and philosophical works of the French seventeenth century were deeply engaged and concerned with the theme. In a series of case studies and close readings, it shows that authors used the logic of idolatry to interrogate the fractured and fragile relationship between the divine and the human, with particular attention to the increasingly fraught question of the legitimacy of human agency. Reading d'Urf , Descartes, La Fontaine, S vign , Molire, and Racine through the lens of idolatry reveals heretofore hidden aspects of their work, all while demonstrating the link between the emergent autonomy of literature and philosophy and the confessional conflicts that dominated the period. In so doing, Professor McClure illustrates how religion can become a source of interpretive complexity, and how this dynamism can and should be taken into account in early modern French studies and beyond. ELLEN MCCLURE is Associate Professor of History and French, University of Illinois at Chicago.
The Danger of Romance
Author: Karen Sullivan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022654043X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
The curious paradox of romance is that, throughout its history, this genre has been dismissed as trivial and unintellectual, yet people have never ceased to flock to it with enthusiasm and even fervor. In contemporary contexts, we devour popular romance and fantasy novels like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones, reference them in conversations, and create online communities to expound, passionately and intelligently, upon their characters and worlds. But romance is “unrealistic,” critics say, doing readers a disservice by not accurately representing human experiences. It is considered by some to be a distraction from real literature, a distraction from real life, and little more. Yet is it possible that romance is expressing a truth—and a truth unrecognized by realist genres? The Arthurian literature of the Middle Ages, Karen Sullivan argues, consistently ventriloquizes in its pages the criticisms that were being made of romance at the time, and implicitly defends itself against those criticisms. The Danger of Romance shows that the conviction that ordinary reality is the only reality is itself an assumption, and one that can blind those who hold it to the extraordinary phenomena that exist around them. It demonstrates that that which is rare, ephemeral, and inexplicable is no less real than that which is commonplace, long-lasting, and easily accounted for. If romance continues to appeal to audiences today, whether in its Arthurian prototype or in its more recent incarnations, it is because it confirms the perception—or even the hope—of a beauty and truth in the world that realist genres deny.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022654043X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 309
Book Description
The curious paradox of romance is that, throughout its history, this genre has been dismissed as trivial and unintellectual, yet people have never ceased to flock to it with enthusiasm and even fervor. In contemporary contexts, we devour popular romance and fantasy novels like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones, reference them in conversations, and create online communities to expound, passionately and intelligently, upon their characters and worlds. But romance is “unrealistic,” critics say, doing readers a disservice by not accurately representing human experiences. It is considered by some to be a distraction from real literature, a distraction from real life, and little more. Yet is it possible that romance is expressing a truth—and a truth unrecognized by realist genres? The Arthurian literature of the Middle Ages, Karen Sullivan argues, consistently ventriloquizes in its pages the criticisms that were being made of romance at the time, and implicitly defends itself against those criticisms. The Danger of Romance shows that the conviction that ordinary reality is the only reality is itself an assumption, and one that can blind those who hold it to the extraordinary phenomena that exist around them. It demonstrates that that which is rare, ephemeral, and inexplicable is no less real than that which is commonplace, long-lasting, and easily accounted for. If romance continues to appeal to audiences today, whether in its Arthurian prototype or in its more recent incarnations, it is because it confirms the perception—or even the hope—of a beauty and truth in the world that realist genres deny.
Anne de Graville and Women's Literary Networks in Early Modern France
Author: Elizabeth L'Estrange
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843846861
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
First detailed reconstruction of Anne de Graville's library, establishing her as one of the most well-read and erudite poets of the period. In the 1520s, the French noblewoman Anne de Graville composed two poetic works, based on older, canonical, male-authored texts: Giovanni Boccaccio's Teseida and Alain Chartier's Belle dame sans mercy. The first, the Beau roman, she offered to Claude, queen of France and wife of Francis I, and the second, the Rondeaux, to the king's mother, Louise of Savoy. With the pro-feminine spin of her rewritings, Anne developed the legacy of another woman writer from 100 years earlier, Christine de Pizan, by entering the on-going debate known as the querelle des femmes. Like Christine, Anne sought to redress the negative view of women found in much contemporary popular literature and to offer role models for both men and women at the contemporary court. This book is the first detailed reconstruction and interpretation of Anne's library and her collecting practice, showing how they relate to her own writings and her literary milieu. It also teases out her links to other women writers of the time interested in the querelle, such as Catherine d'Amboise and Margaret of Navarre. Paying close attention to literary, manuscript, and artistic sources, it establishes Anne's reputation as one of the most erudite poets of the period, and one keenly attuned to the position of women in society as well as to the political sensitivities of the French court.
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843846861
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
First detailed reconstruction of Anne de Graville's library, establishing her as one of the most well-read and erudite poets of the period. In the 1520s, the French noblewoman Anne de Graville composed two poetic works, based on older, canonical, male-authored texts: Giovanni Boccaccio's Teseida and Alain Chartier's Belle dame sans mercy. The first, the Beau roman, she offered to Claude, queen of France and wife of Francis I, and the second, the Rondeaux, to the king's mother, Louise of Savoy. With the pro-feminine spin of her rewritings, Anne developed the legacy of another woman writer from 100 years earlier, Christine de Pizan, by entering the on-going debate known as the querelle des femmes. Like Christine, Anne sought to redress the negative view of women found in much contemporary popular literature and to offer role models for both men and women at the contemporary court. This book is the first detailed reconstruction and interpretation of Anne's library and her collecting practice, showing how they relate to her own writings and her literary milieu. It also teases out her links to other women writers of the time interested in the querelle, such as Catherine d'Amboise and Margaret of Navarre. Paying close attention to literary, manuscript, and artistic sources, it establishes Anne's reputation as one of the most erudite poets of the period, and one keenly attuned to the position of women in society as well as to the political sensitivities of the French court.