Simon Gaunt
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199272075
- eISBN:
- 9780191709869
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272075.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Medieval literature is fascinated with the idea that love may be a fatal affliction. Indeed, it is frequently suggested that true love requires sacrifice, that you must be ready to die for, from, and ...
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Medieval literature is fascinated with the idea that love may be a fatal affliction. Indeed, it is frequently suggested that true love requires sacrifice, that you must be ready to die for, from, and in love. Love, in other words, is represented, sometimes explicitly, as a form of martyrdom, a notion that is repeatedly reinforced by courtly literature's borrowing of religious vocabulary and imagery. The paradigm of the martyr to love has of course remained compelling in the early modern and modern period. This book seeks to explore what is at stake in medieval literature's preoccupation with love's martyrdom. Informed by modern theoretical approaches, particularly Lacanian psychoanalysis and Jacques Derrida's work on ethics, it offers new readings of a wide range of French and Occitan courtly texts from the 12th and 13th centuries, and argues that a new secular ethics of desire emerges from courtly literature because of its fascination with death. This book also examines the interplay between lyric and romance in courtly literary culture, and shows how courtly literature's predilection for sacrificial desire imposes a repressive sex-gender system that may then be subverted by fictional women and queers who either fail to die on cue, or who die in troublesome and disruptive ways.Less
Medieval literature is fascinated with the idea that love may be a fatal affliction. Indeed, it is frequently suggested that true love requires sacrifice, that you must be ready to die for, from, and in love. Love, in other words, is represented, sometimes explicitly, as a form of martyrdom, a notion that is repeatedly reinforced by courtly literature's borrowing of religious vocabulary and imagery. The paradigm of the martyr to love has of course remained compelling in the early modern and modern period. This book seeks to explore what is at stake in medieval literature's preoccupation with love's martyrdom. Informed by modern theoretical approaches, particularly Lacanian psychoanalysis and Jacques Derrida's work on ethics, it offers new readings of a wide range of French and Occitan courtly texts from the 12th and 13th centuries, and argues that a new secular ethics of desire emerges from courtly literature because of its fascination with death. This book also examines the interplay between lyric and romance in courtly literary culture, and shows how courtly literature's predilection for sacrificial desire imposes a repressive sex-gender system that may then be subverted by fictional women and queers who either fail to die on cue, or who die in troublesome and disruptive ways.
Malcolm Hebron
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186205
- eISBN:
- 9780191674440
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186205.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Sieges were a popular subject in medieval romances. Tales of the Crusades featured champions of Christianity capturing towns in the Holy Land or mounting heroic defences. The fall of a great city ...
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Sieges were a popular subject in medieval romances. Tales of the Crusades featured champions of Christianity capturing towns in the Holy Land or mounting heroic defences. The fall of a great city such as Troy, Thebes, or Jerusalem provided opportunities for the recreation of ancient chivalry and for reflections on historical change. Images of the siege in romances also point to other forms, such as drama and love allegory, where it represents the trial of the soul or the pursuit of the beloved. This book is the first full-length study of this important theme in medieval literature. Close reading of selected Middle English shows how writers used descriptions of sieges to explore such subjects as military strategy, heroism, chivalry, and attitudes to the past. This study also draws on a wide range of writings in several languages, to set the romances in a broad context. When they are seen against a background of military manuals, patristic commentary, pageantry, and love poetry, the sieges of romance take on deeper resonances of meaning and reflect the vitality of the theme in medieval culture as a whole.Less
Sieges were a popular subject in medieval romances. Tales of the Crusades featured champions of Christianity capturing towns in the Holy Land or mounting heroic defences. The fall of a great city such as Troy, Thebes, or Jerusalem provided opportunities for the recreation of ancient chivalry and for reflections on historical change. Images of the siege in romances also point to other forms, such as drama and love allegory, where it represents the trial of the soul or the pursuit of the beloved. This book is the first full-length study of this important theme in medieval literature. Close reading of selected Middle English shows how writers used descriptions of sieges to explore such subjects as military strategy, heroism, chivalry, and attitudes to the past. This study also draws on a wide range of writings in several languages, to set the romances in a broad context. When they are seen against a background of military manuals, patristic commentary, pageantry, and love poetry, the sieges of romance take on deeper resonances of meaning and reflect the vitality of the theme in medieval culture as a whole.
Paul Giles
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691136134
- eISBN:
- 9781400836512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691136134.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines how the notion of medieval American literature not only makes a paradoxical kind of sense but might be seen as integral to the construction of the subject more generally. It ...
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This chapter examines how the notion of medieval American literature not only makes a paradoxical kind of sense but might be seen as integral to the construction of the subject more generally. It argues that antebellum narratives situate native soil on a highly charged and fraught boundary between past and present, circumference and displacement. In itself, the idea of medieval American literature is hardly more peculiar than F. O. Matthiessen's conception of an “American Renaissance.” Matthiessen sought to justify his subject by aligning nineteenth-century American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne with seventeenth-century English forerunners such as William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. The chapter considers resonances of medievalism within nineteenth-century American culture and how many antebellum writers consciously foreground within their texts the shifting, permeable boundaries of time and space, suggesting how fiction and cartography, the writing of history and the writing of geography, are commensurate with each other.Less
This chapter examines how the notion of medieval American literature not only makes a paradoxical kind of sense but might be seen as integral to the construction of the subject more generally. It argues that antebellum narratives situate native soil on a highly charged and fraught boundary between past and present, circumference and displacement. In itself, the idea of medieval American literature is hardly more peculiar than F. O. Matthiessen's conception of an “American Renaissance.” Matthiessen sought to justify his subject by aligning nineteenth-century American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne with seventeenth-century English forerunners such as William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. The chapter considers resonances of medievalism within nineteenth-century American culture and how many antebellum writers consciously foreground within their texts the shifting, permeable boundaries of time and space, suggesting how fiction and cartography, the writing of history and the writing of geography, are commensurate with each other.
Hugh White
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187301
- eISBN:
- 9780191674693
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187301.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
‘Nature’ is a highly important term in the ethical discourse of the Middle Ages and, as such, a leading concept in medieval literature. This book examines the moral status of the natural in writings ...
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‘Nature’ is a highly important term in the ethical discourse of the Middle Ages and, as such, a leading concept in medieval literature. This book examines the moral status of the natural in writings by Alan of Lille, Jean de Meun, John Gower, Geoffrey Chaucer, and others, showing how — particularly in the erotic sphere — the influences of nature are not always conceived as wholly benign. Though medieval thinkers often affirm an association of nature with reason, and therefore with the good, there is also an acknowledgement that the animal, the pre-rational, the instinctive within human beings may be validly considered natural. In fact, human beings may be thought to be urged, almost ineluctably, by the force of nature within them towards behaviour hostile to reason and the right.Less
‘Nature’ is a highly important term in the ethical discourse of the Middle Ages and, as such, a leading concept in medieval literature. This book examines the moral status of the natural in writings by Alan of Lille, Jean de Meun, John Gower, Geoffrey Chaucer, and others, showing how — particularly in the erotic sphere — the influences of nature are not always conceived as wholly benign. Though medieval thinkers often affirm an association of nature with reason, and therefore with the good, there is also an acknowledgement that the animal, the pre-rational, the instinctive within human beings may be validly considered natural. In fact, human beings may be thought to be urged, almost ineluctably, by the force of nature within them towards behaviour hostile to reason and the right.
Alastair Matthews
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199656998
- eISBN:
- 9780191742187
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199656998.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This book presents a narratological analysis of the Kaiserchronik, or chronicle of the emperors, an account of the Roman and Holy Roman emperors from the foundation of Rome to the run-up to the ...
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This book presents a narratological analysis of the Kaiserchronik, or chronicle of the emperors, an account of the Roman and Holy Roman emperors from the foundation of Rome to the run-up to the Second Crusade that was remarkably popular in medieval Germany. Previous research has concentrated on the structure and sources of the work and emphasized its role as a Christian narrative of history, but this study shows that the Kaiserchronik does not simply illustrate a didactic religious message: it also provides an example of how techniques of story-telling in the vernacular were developed and explored in twelfth-century Germany. Four aspects of narrative are described (time and space, motivation, perspective, and narrative strands), each of which is examined with reference to the story of a particular emperor (Constantine the Great, Charlemagne, Otto the Great, and Henry IV). Rather than dogmatically imposing a single analytical framework on the Kaiserchronik, the book takes account of the fact that modern theory cannot always be applied directly to works from premodern periods: it draws critically on, and where necessary refines, a variety of approaches, including those of Gérard Genette, Boris Uspensky, and Eberhard Lämmert. Throughout the book, the narrative techniques described are contextualized by means of comparisons with other texts in both Middle High German and Latin, so that the place of the Kaiserchronik as a literary narrative in the twelfth century becomes clear.Less
This book presents a narratological analysis of the Kaiserchronik, or chronicle of the emperors, an account of the Roman and Holy Roman emperors from the foundation of Rome to the run-up to the Second Crusade that was remarkably popular in medieval Germany. Previous research has concentrated on the structure and sources of the work and emphasized its role as a Christian narrative of history, but this study shows that the Kaiserchronik does not simply illustrate a didactic religious message: it also provides an example of how techniques of story-telling in the vernacular were developed and explored in twelfth-century Germany. Four aspects of narrative are described (time and space, motivation, perspective, and narrative strands), each of which is examined with reference to the story of a particular emperor (Constantine the Great, Charlemagne, Otto the Great, and Henry IV). Rather than dogmatically imposing a single analytical framework on the Kaiserchronik, the book takes account of the fact that modern theory cannot always be applied directly to works from premodern periods: it draws critically on, and where necessary refines, a variety of approaches, including those of Gérard Genette, Boris Uspensky, and Eberhard Lämmert. Throughout the book, the narrative techniques described are contextualized by means of comparisons with other texts in both Middle High German and Latin, so that the place of the Kaiserchronik as a literary narrative in the twelfth century becomes clear.
Sylvia Huot
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199252121
- eISBN:
- 9780191719110
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199252121.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This book examines the literary representation of madness in a series of medieval French texts, including both romance and hagiography. The study covers both ‘genuine’ madmen and ‘holy fools’, for ...
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This book examines the literary representation of madness in a series of medieval French texts, including both romance and hagiography. The study covers both ‘genuine’ madmen and ‘holy fools’, for whom madness is actually a veil for penance or sanctity. Madness afflicts the greatest heroes of the Arthurian world — Lancelot and Tristan — as well as numerous other chivalric figures. Overall, medieval French texts depict a wide range of attitudes towards madness: it may reflect nobility and refinement, heroic or spiritual transcendence, tragic impairment, comic ineptitude, or sinful degradation. The examination of these texts allows for the study of how and why madness is used as a literary motif; how the concept of madness interacts with other categories of difference, such as class and gender, in producing or problematising personal identity; and how different treatments of madness may be associated with different literary genres. The motif of madness is also compared to forms of bodily deviance, such as lycanthropy and somnambulism, in an analysis of the ways that identity is crafted in medieval texts through the joint crafting of mind and body. Texts examined include the Prose Lancelot, the Prose Tristan, Amadas et Ydoine, Robert le Diable, the Miracles de St. Louis, and assorted other devotional and courtly texts.Less
This book examines the literary representation of madness in a series of medieval French texts, including both romance and hagiography. The study covers both ‘genuine’ madmen and ‘holy fools’, for whom madness is actually a veil for penance or sanctity. Madness afflicts the greatest heroes of the Arthurian world — Lancelot and Tristan — as well as numerous other chivalric figures. Overall, medieval French texts depict a wide range of attitudes towards madness: it may reflect nobility and refinement, heroic or spiritual transcendence, tragic impairment, comic ineptitude, or sinful degradation. The examination of these texts allows for the study of how and why madness is used as a literary motif; how the concept of madness interacts with other categories of difference, such as class and gender, in producing or problematising personal identity; and how different treatments of madness may be associated with different literary genres. The motif of madness is also compared to forms of bodily deviance, such as lycanthropy and somnambulism, in an analysis of the ways that identity is crafted in medieval texts through the joint crafting of mind and body. Texts examined include the Prose Lancelot, the Prose Tristan, Amadas et Ydoine, Robert le Diable, the Miracles de St. Louis, and assorted other devotional and courtly texts.
Dorothy Yamamoto
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198186748
- eISBN:
- 9780191718564
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186748.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Animals and ‘wild men’ are everywhere in medieval culture, but their role in illuminating medieval constructions of humanity has never been properly explored. This book gathers together a large ...
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Animals and ‘wild men’ are everywhere in medieval culture, but their role in illuminating medieval constructions of humanity has never been properly explored. This book gathers together a large number of themes and subjects, including the Bestiary, heraldry, and hunting, and examines them as part of a unified discourse about the body and its creative transformations. ‘Human’ and ‘animal’ are terms traditionally opposed to one another, but their relationship must always be characterized by a dynamic instability. Humans scout into the animal zone, manipulating and reshaping ‘animal’ bodies in accordance with their own social imaginings — yet these forays are risky since they lead to questions about what humanity consists in, and whether it can ever be forfeited. Studies of birds, foxes, ‘game’ animals, the wild man, and shape-shifting women fill out the argument of this book, which examines works by Chaucer, Gower, the Gawain-poet, and Henryson, as well as showing that many less familiar texts have rewards that an informed reading can reveal.Less
Animals and ‘wild men’ are everywhere in medieval culture, but their role in illuminating medieval constructions of humanity has never been properly explored. This book gathers together a large number of themes and subjects, including the Bestiary, heraldry, and hunting, and examines them as part of a unified discourse about the body and its creative transformations. ‘Human’ and ‘animal’ are terms traditionally opposed to one another, but their relationship must always be characterized by a dynamic instability. Humans scout into the animal zone, manipulating and reshaping ‘animal’ bodies in accordance with their own social imaginings — yet these forays are risky since they lead to questions about what humanity consists in, and whether it can ever be forfeited. Studies of birds, foxes, ‘game’ animals, the wild man, and shape-shifting women fill out the argument of this book, which examines works by Chaucer, Gower, the Gawain-poet, and Henryson, as well as showing that many less familiar texts have rewards that an informed reading can reveal.
Stephanie L. Barczewski
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207283
- eISBN:
- 9780191677618
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207283.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Ideas
This chapter discusses the role of language in the construction of a new form of British national identity in the nineteenth century. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, France could no longer serve so ...
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This chapter discusses the role of language in the construction of a new form of British national identity in the nineteenth century. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, France could no longer serve so readily as the ‘Other’ against which that national identity was defined. Accordingly, many Britons began to turn to other methods, and a key component of this process was language. The emergence of the study of the English language and its literature as a respected academic discipline was related to the growth of patriotic pride in the nation's culture. In this context, enthusiasm for medieval literature, the earliest expressions of the English ‘national genius’, grew steadily in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since King Arthur and Robin Hood were two of the most prominent heroes of medieval literature, this enthusiasm frequently involved one or both of them.Less
This chapter discusses the role of language in the construction of a new form of British national identity in the nineteenth century. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, France could no longer serve so readily as the ‘Other’ against which that national identity was defined. Accordingly, many Britons began to turn to other methods, and a key component of this process was language. The emergence of the study of the English language and its literature as a respected academic discipline was related to the growth of patriotic pride in the nation's culture. In this context, enthusiasm for medieval literature, the earliest expressions of the English ‘national genius’, grew steadily in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since King Arthur and Robin Hood were two of the most prominent heroes of medieval literature, this enthusiasm frequently involved one or both of them.
Thomas R. Hart
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263952
- eISBN:
- 9780191734083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263952.003.0020
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter examines the history and developments in the study of medieval Hispanic literatures in Great Britain during the twentieth century. It explains that the importance of Hispanic studies in ...
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This chapter examines the history and developments in the study of medieval Hispanic literatures in Great Britain during the twentieth century. It explains that the importance of Hispanic studies in British universities increased greatly after the end of the First World War and that by 1925 there were four professorships in Spanish studies. The first chair of Spanish studies in Cambridge was J.B. Trend. Other notable British hispanists include William James Entwistle and Gerald Brenan.Less
This chapter examines the history and developments in the study of medieval Hispanic literatures in Great Britain during the twentieth century. It explains that the importance of Hispanic studies in British universities increased greatly after the end of the First World War and that by 1925 there were four professorships in Spanish studies. The first chair of Spanish studies in Cambridge was J.B. Trend. Other notable British hispanists include William James Entwistle and Gerald Brenan.
Eva von Contzen and Anke Bernau (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719089701
- eISBN:
- 9781526104243
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719089701.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Anglo-Saxon / Old English Literature
Sanctity as literature in late medieval Britain explores how sanctity and questions of literariness are intertwined across a range of medieval genres. “Sanctity” as a theme and concept figures as a ...
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Sanctity as literature in late medieval Britain explores how sanctity and questions of literariness are intertwined across a range of medieval genres. “Sanctity” as a theme and concept figures as a prominent indicator of the developments in the period, in which authors began to challenge the predominant medieval dichotomy of either relying on the authority of previous authors when writing, or on experience. These developments are marked also by a rethinking of the intended and perceived effects of writings. Instead of looking for clues in religious practices in order to explain these changes, the literary practices themselves need to be scrutinised in detail, which provide evidence for a reinterpretation of both the writers’ and their topics’ traditional roles and purposes. The essays in the collection are based on a representative choice of texts from the fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, covering penitential literature, hagiographical compilations and individual legends as well as romance, debates, and mystical literature from medieval and early modern England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. For researchers and advanced students of medieval literature and culture, the collection offers new insights into one of the central concepts of the late medieval period by considering sanctity first and foremost from the perspective of its literariness and literary potential.Less
Sanctity as literature in late medieval Britain explores how sanctity and questions of literariness are intertwined across a range of medieval genres. “Sanctity” as a theme and concept figures as a prominent indicator of the developments in the period, in which authors began to challenge the predominant medieval dichotomy of either relying on the authority of previous authors when writing, or on experience. These developments are marked also by a rethinking of the intended and perceived effects of writings. Instead of looking for clues in religious practices in order to explain these changes, the literary practices themselves need to be scrutinised in detail, which provide evidence for a reinterpretation of both the writers’ and their topics’ traditional roles and purposes. The essays in the collection are based on a representative choice of texts from the fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, covering penitential literature, hagiographical compilations and individual legends as well as romance, debates, and mystical literature from medieval and early modern England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. For researchers and advanced students of medieval literature and culture, the collection offers new insights into one of the central concepts of the late medieval period by considering sanctity first and foremost from the perspective of its literariness and literary potential.
Malcolm Hebron
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186205
- eISBN:
- 9780191674440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186205.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter explores medieval texts on the siege of Troy. The significance of Troy lies in the fact that it is a great city, physically invincible, which is besieged and falls. Explanations of the ...
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This chapter explores medieval texts on the siege of Troy. The significance of Troy lies in the fact that it is a great city, physically invincible, which is besieged and falls. Explanations of the disaster that befell the Trojans had important ramifications for medieval perceptions of later history. Related to this theme are the subjects of the identity of royal houses who traced their foundation back to Trojan exiles, the use of Troy as a reference point in commentaries and other works, the portrayal of a besieged king, and the ways in which Troy itself was imagined.Less
This chapter explores medieval texts on the siege of Troy. The significance of Troy lies in the fact that it is a great city, physically invincible, which is besieged and falls. Explanations of the disaster that befell the Trojans had important ramifications for medieval perceptions of later history. Related to this theme are the subjects of the identity of royal houses who traced their foundation back to Trojan exiles, the use of Troy as a reference point in commentaries and other works, the portrayal of a besieged king, and the ways in which Troy itself was imagined.
Christopher Prendergast
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199215850
- eISBN:
- 9780191706912
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215850.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The appropriation of far-flung zones of antiquity to the cause of national awakening in Germany took hold in another major crucible of the 19th-century culture wars: the Middle Ages. Broadly ...
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The appropriation of far-flung zones of antiquity to the cause of national awakening in Germany took hold in another major crucible of the 19th-century culture wars: the Middle Ages. Broadly speaking, this period did not greatly interest French critic Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve, his essentially classical frame of mind inuring him against the seductions of Romantic medievalist revivalism. In his 1850 essay ‘Qu'est-ce qu'un classique?’, it makes its way onto the slopes of Montserrat, but the inclusion is a perfunctory one, presumably because, whatever their appeal, the Middle Ages also lack the capital virtues of order and coherence. Where French medieval literature was concerned, Sainte-Beuve's attention span was short, and his judgements sporadic and unfocused. Sainte-Beuve sees French literature as ‘beginning’ in the 16th century, although this was, of course, an evaluative rather than a strictly historical judgement.Less
The appropriation of far-flung zones of antiquity to the cause of national awakening in Germany took hold in another major crucible of the 19th-century culture wars: the Middle Ages. Broadly speaking, this period did not greatly interest French critic Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve, his essentially classical frame of mind inuring him against the seductions of Romantic medievalist revivalism. In his 1850 essay ‘Qu'est-ce qu'un classique?’, it makes its way onto the slopes of Montserrat, but the inclusion is a perfunctory one, presumably because, whatever their appeal, the Middle Ages also lack the capital virtues of order and coherence. Where French medieval literature was concerned, Sainte-Beuve's attention span was short, and his judgements sporadic and unfocused. Sainte-Beuve sees French literature as ‘beginning’ in the 16th century, although this was, of course, an evaluative rather than a strictly historical judgement.
Malcolm Hebron
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186205
- eISBN:
- 9780191674440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186205.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter focuses on The Prose Siege of Thebes, a short account of the legendary story of the battle for Thebes by the two brothers Eteocles and Polyneices. It tells us that an interest in ...
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This chapter focuses on The Prose Siege of Thebes, a short account of the legendary story of the battle for Thebes by the two brothers Eteocles and Polyneices. It tells us that an interest in literary treatments of siege warfare in general, and in sieges of great cities of the past in particular, existed in England in the middle of the 15th century. Indeed, the chief interest of ancient cities to some readers would have been the military lessons that could be learned from their demise. Romances could also provide some idea of cause and reason that may have seemed absent in real life: witnesses to the campaigns in France, England, Wales, and Scotland looked to writers to give such events a shape and meaning, and perhaps an idealizing gloss. Heroic commanders were required to make sieges seem more dramatic and in some way more positive than they can have seemed at the time.Less
This chapter focuses on The Prose Siege of Thebes, a short account of the legendary story of the battle for Thebes by the two brothers Eteocles and Polyneices. It tells us that an interest in literary treatments of siege warfare in general, and in sieges of great cities of the past in particular, existed in England in the middle of the 15th century. Indeed, the chief interest of ancient cities to some readers would have been the military lessons that could be learned from their demise. Romances could also provide some idea of cause and reason that may have seemed absent in real life: witnesses to the campaigns in France, England, Wales, and Scotland looked to writers to give such events a shape and meaning, and perhaps an idealizing gloss. Heroic commanders were required to make sieges seem more dramatic and in some way more positive than they can have seemed at the time.
Malcolm Hebron
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186205
- eISBN:
- 9780191674440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186205.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter explores medieval texts on the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 ad. The treatments in Middle English of the matter of the capture and destruction of Jerusalem illustrate the ...
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This chapter explores medieval texts on the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 ad. The treatments in Middle English of the matter of the capture and destruction of Jerusalem illustrate the variations that could be made on the theme of the siege by writers. Material which had evolved from a mixture of historical and religious writings of the early medieval period appealed to later audiences for several reasons: the story of the siege combines piety and religious meaning with a narrative of crusading warfare and chivalry, in which God is seen to triumph over his enemies. While accepting the basic idea of the siege as God's vengeance, writers responded to the different aspects of the siege in different ways. This book explores these different treatments in the texts Titus and Vespasian, The Siege of Jerusalem, and the English Bible.Less
This chapter explores medieval texts on the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 ad. The treatments in Middle English of the matter of the capture and destruction of Jerusalem illustrate the variations that could be made on the theme of the siege by writers. Material which had evolved from a mixture of historical and religious writings of the early medieval period appealed to later audiences for several reasons: the story of the siege combines piety and religious meaning with a narrative of crusading warfare and chivalry, in which God is seen to triumph over his enemies. While accepting the basic idea of the siege as God's vengeance, writers responded to the different aspects of the siege in different ways. This book explores these different treatments in the texts Titus and Vespasian, The Siege of Jerusalem, and the English Bible.
Brian Murdoch
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199564149
- eISBN:
- 9780191721328
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199564149.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This book examines the development in medieval European literature of the story of Adam and Eve after the expulsion from paradise. The gaps in what the Bible records of their lives were filled in ...
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This book examines the development in medieval European literature of the story of Adam and Eve after the expulsion from paradise. The gaps in what the Bible records of their lives were filled in early and medieval times to a great extent by apocrypha or pseudepigrapha such as the Latin Life of Adam and Eve (which merges at some points with a series of legends of the Holy Rood). It describes their attempt to return to paradise by undertaking penance whilst immersed in a river, Eve's second temptation, and the ways in which Adam and Eve cope with the novelties of childbirth and death. The Vita Adae et Evae is part of a broad apocryphal tradition, but is not a unified text, and there are very many variations within the substantial number of extant versions. It was translated and adapted in prose, verse, and drama (as tracts, in chronicles, or as literary works) in virtually all western and some eastern European languages in the Middle Ages, and survived sometimes beyond that. These adaptations are examined on a comparative basis. There is a limited iconographical tradition. The book argues that the study of the apocryphal tradition demands examination of these vernacular texts; and also brings to light a very widespread aspect of European culture that disappeared to a large extent—though it did not die out completely—at the time of the Renaissance and Reformation, with their renewed insistence on canonicity and on the establishment of a foundation text for works of antiquity.Less
This book examines the development in medieval European literature of the story of Adam and Eve after the expulsion from paradise. The gaps in what the Bible records of their lives were filled in early and medieval times to a great extent by apocrypha or pseudepigrapha such as the Latin Life of Adam and Eve (which merges at some points with a series of legends of the Holy Rood). It describes their attempt to return to paradise by undertaking penance whilst immersed in a river, Eve's second temptation, and the ways in which Adam and Eve cope with the novelties of childbirth and death. The Vita Adae et Evae is part of a broad apocryphal tradition, but is not a unified text, and there are very many variations within the substantial number of extant versions. It was translated and adapted in prose, verse, and drama (as tracts, in chronicles, or as literary works) in virtually all western and some eastern European languages in the Middle Ages, and survived sometimes beyond that. These adaptations are examined on a comparative basis. There is a limited iconographical tradition. The book argues that the study of the apocryphal tradition demands examination of these vernacular texts; and also brings to light a very widespread aspect of European culture that disappeared to a large extent—though it did not die out completely—at the time of the Renaissance and Reformation, with their renewed insistence on canonicity and on the establishment of a foundation text for works of antiquity.
Malcolm Hebron
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186205
- eISBN:
- 9780191674440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186205.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter explores depictions of the siege commander in various medieval texts. It shows that the influence of the heroic literary tradition is evident throughout, particularly perhaps in The ...
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This chapter explores depictions of the siege commander in various medieval texts. It shows that the influence of the heroic literary tradition is evident throughout, particularly perhaps in The Siege of Caerlaverok. This sense of the formulations and topics appropriate to the subject still allows for much variation by individual writers: Barbour's close interest in particular events and strategies, for example, is not shared to any great extent by the authors of the other pieces, who prefer broader brushstrokes. The logistical background to sieges, from the gathering and maintenance of an army to the relations between leaders and the legal and moral justifications for war, also appear as a major theme: writers seem to enjoy showing how things should be done. There is a common interest in sieges of the past, and in the heroic qualities of those who managed them, though these are also open to examination and criticism.Less
This chapter explores depictions of the siege commander in various medieval texts. It shows that the influence of the heroic literary tradition is evident throughout, particularly perhaps in The Siege of Caerlaverok. This sense of the formulations and topics appropriate to the subject still allows for much variation by individual writers: Barbour's close interest in particular events and strategies, for example, is not shared to any great extent by the authors of the other pieces, who prefer broader brushstrokes. The logistical background to sieges, from the gathering and maintenance of an army to the relations between leaders and the legal and moral justifications for war, also appear as a major theme: writers seem to enjoy showing how things should be done. There is a common interest in sieges of the past, and in the heroic qualities of those who managed them, though these are also open to examination and criticism.
Eleanor Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226015842
- eISBN:
- 9780226015989
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226015989.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Literary scholars often avoid the category of the aesthetic in discussions of ethics, believing that purely aesthetic judgments can vitiate analyses of a literary work's sociopolitical heft and ...
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Literary scholars often avoid the category of the aesthetic in discussions of ethics, believing that purely aesthetic judgments can vitiate analyses of a literary work's sociopolitical heft and meaning. This book reveals that aesthetics—the formal aspects of literary language that make it sense-perceptible—are indeed inextricable from ethics in the writing of medieval literature. It brings a keen formalist eye to bear on the prosimetric form: the mixing of prose with lyrical poetry. This form descends from the writings of the sixth-century Christian philosopher Boethius—specifically his famous prison text, Consolation of Philosophy—to the late medieval English tradition. The book argues that Boethius's text had a broad influence not simply on the thematic and philosophical content of subsequent literary writing, but also on the specific aesthetic construction of several vernacular traditions. It demonstrates the underlying prosimetric structures in a variety of Middle English texts—including Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and portions of the Canterbury Tales, Thomas Usk's Testament of Love, John Gower's Confessio amantis, and Thomas Hoccleve's autobiographical poetry—and asks how particular formal choices work, how they resonate with medieval literary-theoretical ideas, and how particular poems and prose works mediate the tricky business of modeling ethical transformation for a readership.Less
Literary scholars often avoid the category of the aesthetic in discussions of ethics, believing that purely aesthetic judgments can vitiate analyses of a literary work's sociopolitical heft and meaning. This book reveals that aesthetics—the formal aspects of literary language that make it sense-perceptible—are indeed inextricable from ethics in the writing of medieval literature. It brings a keen formalist eye to bear on the prosimetric form: the mixing of prose with lyrical poetry. This form descends from the writings of the sixth-century Christian philosopher Boethius—specifically his famous prison text, Consolation of Philosophy—to the late medieval English tradition. The book argues that Boethius's text had a broad influence not simply on the thematic and philosophical content of subsequent literary writing, but also on the specific aesthetic construction of several vernacular traditions. It demonstrates the underlying prosimetric structures in a variety of Middle English texts—including Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and portions of the Canterbury Tales, Thomas Usk's Testament of Love, John Gower's Confessio amantis, and Thomas Hoccleve's autobiographical poetry—and asks how particular formal choices work, how they resonate with medieval literary-theoretical ideas, and how particular poems and prose works mediate the tricky business of modeling ethical transformation for a readership.
Malcolm Hebron
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198186205
- eISBN:
- 9780191674440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198186205.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter first considers the use of the image or idea of the siege in spiritual writings, an important aspect of the larger subject of the allegorical fortress. It then discusses sieges in ...
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This chapter first considers the use of the image or idea of the siege in spiritual writings, an important aspect of the larger subject of the allegorical fortress. It then discusses sieges in non-spiritual writings concerning love, together with examples from art and civic and courtly pageantry. The siege of the soul and the siege of love are not always easy to distinguish: the two literary traditions developed at the same time, and the representations of sieges of love owe much in style and imagery to spiritual writings. Conversely, some religious texts employing the siege as an allegorical model also use the language of courtly love to help expound ideas on the soul, and the distinction between spiritual and human love in some works is consequently not always clear.Less
This chapter first considers the use of the image or idea of the siege in spiritual writings, an important aspect of the larger subject of the allegorical fortress. It then discusses sieges in non-spiritual writings concerning love, together with examples from art and civic and courtly pageantry. The siege of the soul and the siege of love are not always easy to distinguish: the two literary traditions developed at the same time, and the representations of sieges of love owe much in style and imagery to spiritual writings. Conversely, some religious texts employing the siege as an allegorical model also use the language of courtly love to help expound ideas on the soul, and the distinction between spiritual and human love in some works is consequently not always clear.
Alan Deyermond
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263952
- eISBN:
- 9780191734083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263952.003.0021
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter examines British studies and research with regard to medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri. It explains that Dante and his Divina commedia have been a central preoccupation of British ...
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This chapter examines British studies and research with regard to medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri. It explains that Dante and his Divina commedia have been a central preoccupation of British Italianists throughout the twentieth century and that it was the focus of the first two volumes of the influential Cambridge Studies on Medieval Literature series. Notable general studies of the Commedia include Sir Cyril Hinshelwood's article on its imagery, Sheila Ralphs' short book on allegorical patterns, and two longer books by Jeremy Tambling and Patrick Boyde.Less
This chapter examines British studies and research with regard to medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri. It explains that Dante and his Divina commedia have been a central preoccupation of British Italianists throughout the twentieth century and that it was the focus of the first two volumes of the influential Cambridge Studies on Medieval Literature series. Notable general studies of the Commedia include Sir Cyril Hinshelwood's article on its imagery, Sheila Ralphs' short book on allegorical patterns, and two longer books by Jeremy Tambling and Patrick Boyde.
Michael Lapidge
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263327
- eISBN:
- 9780191734168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263327.003.0016
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter is primarily concerned with Anglo-Latin prose: that is to say, Latin prose composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 650 and 1050. It poses the question of the extent to which ...
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This chapter is primarily concerned with Anglo-Latin prose: that is to say, Latin prose composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 650 and 1050. It poses the question of the extent to which Anglo-Latin authors were aware of different stylistic registers, and how well they understood what diction was appropriate to either prose or verse. Using the example of Bede as a starting point, the chapter provides a list of those features of poetic diction that are found, in varying degrees, in the authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The seven criteria presented provide a crude measuring-stick against which to assess the poeticism of the principal authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The study of poeticism in Anglo-Latin prose, and in medieval Latin literature in general, is a subject that awaits exploration.Less
This chapter is primarily concerned with Anglo-Latin prose: that is to say, Latin prose composed in Anglo-Saxon England between roughly 650 and 1050. It poses the question of the extent to which Anglo-Latin authors were aware of different stylistic registers, and how well they understood what diction was appropriate to either prose or verse. Using the example of Bede as a starting point, the chapter provides a list of those features of poetic diction that are found, in varying degrees, in the authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The seven criteria presented provide a crude measuring-stick against which to assess the poeticism of the principal authors of Anglo-Latin prose. The study of poeticism in Anglo-Latin prose, and in medieval Latin literature in general, is a subject that awaits exploration.
