Rodney Sampson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199541157
- eISBN:
- 9780191716096
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199541157.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Phonetics / Phonology
This book presents for the first time an in‐depth historical account of vowel prosthesis in the Romance languages. Vowel prosthesis is a change which involves the appearance of a non‐etymological ...
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This book presents for the first time an in‐depth historical account of vowel prosthesis in the Romance languages. Vowel prosthesis is a change which involves the appearance of a non‐etymological vowel at the beginning of a word: a familiar example is the initial e which appears in the development of Latin sperare to Spanish esperar and French espérer ‘to hope’. Despite its widespread incidence in the Romance languages, it has remained poorly studied. In his wide‐ranging comparative coverage, Professor Sampson identifies three main categories of vowel prosthesis that have occurred and explores in detail their historical trajectory and the relationship between them. The presentation draws freely throughout on the rich philological materials available from Romance and brings to light various unexpected changes in the productive use of prosthesis through time. For example in French and Italian (which is Tuscan‐based), one category of prosthesis became well established in the early Middle Ages only to lose productivity and subsequently become moribund. With its extensive use of empirical data and findings from theoretical linguistics, the book offers a thorough and revealing account of a fascinating chapter in the phonological history of Romance.Less
This book presents for the first time an in‐depth historical account of vowel prosthesis in the Romance languages. Vowel prosthesis is a change which involves the appearance of a non‐etymological vowel at the beginning of a word: a familiar example is the initial e which appears in the development of Latin sperare to Spanish esperar and French espérer ‘to hope’. Despite its widespread incidence in the Romance languages, it has remained poorly studied. In his wide‐ranging comparative coverage, Professor Sampson identifies three main categories of vowel prosthesis that have occurred and explores in detail their historical trajectory and the relationship between them. The presentation draws freely throughout on the rich philological materials available from Romance and brings to light various unexpected changes in the productive use of prosthesis through time. For example in French and Italian (which is Tuscan‐based), one category of prosthesis became well established in the early Middle Ages only to lose productivity and subsequently become moribund. With its extensive use of empirical data and findings from theoretical linguistics, the book offers a thorough and revealing account of a fascinating chapter in the phonological history of Romance.
Rosalind Brown‐Grant
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199554140
- eISBN:
- 9780191721069
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199554140.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter summarises the key findings of the book, arguing that the conception of masculine and feminine roles in the historico-realist romances of the later middle ages changed markedly from that ...
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This chapter summarises the key findings of the book, arguing that the conception of masculine and feminine roles in the historico-realist romances of the later middle ages changed markedly from that found in earlier works in the genre. It attributes these changes in the representation of chivalric masculinity, adolescent self-determination, spousal identity, and marital love to the moralising culture of the day as seen in works such as moral treatises, chivalric biographies, and marriage sermons. It stresses that whilst these later romances have traditionally been seen as extremely uniform, the adoption of a gender approach in fact reveals great diversity in terms of their depiction of characters, choice of narrative strategies, and attitudes to love and marriage. It ends by suggesting ways in which this contextualising approach to the study of gender in historico-realist romance might be applied to other types in the genre.Less
This chapter summarises the key findings of the book, arguing that the conception of masculine and feminine roles in the historico-realist romances of the later middle ages changed markedly from that found in earlier works in the genre. It attributes these changes in the representation of chivalric masculinity, adolescent self-determination, spousal identity, and marital love to the moralising culture of the day as seen in works such as moral treatises, chivalric biographies, and marriage sermons. It stresses that whilst these later romances have traditionally been seen as extremely uniform, the adoption of a gender approach in fact reveals great diversity in terms of their depiction of characters, choice of narrative strategies, and attitudes to love and marriage. It ends by suggesting ways in which this contextualising approach to the study of gender in historico-realist romance might be applied to other types in the genre.
Andrew King
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187226
- eISBN:
- 9780191674662
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187226.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Scholarship on Middle English romance has done little to access the textual and bibliographical continuity of this remarkable literary tradition into the 16th century and its impact on Elizabethan ...
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Scholarship on Middle English romance has done little to access the textual and bibliographical continuity of this remarkable literary tradition into the 16th century and its impact on Elizabethan works. To an even greater extent, Spenserian scholarship has failed to investigate the significant and complex debts The Faerie Queene owes to medieval native verse romance and Malory's Le Morte D'arthur. This book accordingly offers a comprehensive study of the impact of Middle English romance on The Faerie Queene. It employs the concept of memory, in which both Middle English romance writers and Spenser show specific interest, in building a sense of the thematic, generic, and cultural complexity of the native romance tradition. The memorial character of Middle English romance resides in its intertextuality and its frequent presentation of narrative events as historical and consequently the basis for a favourable sense of local or even national identity. Spenser's memories of native romance involve a more troubled engagement with that tradition of providential national history as well as an endeavour to see in pre-Reformation romance a prophetic and objective authority for Protestant belief.Less
Scholarship on Middle English romance has done little to access the textual and bibliographical continuity of this remarkable literary tradition into the 16th century and its impact on Elizabethan works. To an even greater extent, Spenserian scholarship has failed to investigate the significant and complex debts The Faerie Queene owes to medieval native verse romance and Malory's Le Morte D'arthur. This book accordingly offers a comprehensive study of the impact of Middle English romance on The Faerie Queene. It employs the concept of memory, in which both Middle English romance writers and Spenser show specific interest, in building a sense of the thematic, generic, and cultural complexity of the native romance tradition. The memorial character of Middle English romance resides in its intertextuality and its frequent presentation of narrative events as historical and consequently the basis for a favourable sense of local or even national identity. Spenser's memories of native romance involve a more troubled engagement with that tradition of providential national history as well as an endeavour to see in pre-Reformation romance a prophetic and objective authority for Protestant belief.
Ad Putter
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182535
- eISBN:
- 9780191673825
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182535.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This is an innovative and original exploration of the connections between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the most well-known works of medieval English literature, and the tradition of French ...
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This is an innovative and original exploration of the connections between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the most well-known works of medieval English literature, and the tradition of French Arthurian romance, best-known through the works of Chretien de Troyes two centuries earlier. The book compares Gawain with a wide range of French Arthurian romances, exploring their recurrent structural patterns and motifs, their ethical orientation and the social context in which they were produced. It presents a wealth of new sources and analogues, which provide illuminating points of comparison for analysis of the self-consciousness with which the Gawain-poet handled the staple ingredients of Arthurian romance. Throughout, the author pays close attention to the ways in which the modes of representation of Arthurian romance are related to social and historical context. By revealing in the course of their romances the importance of conscience, courtliness, and self-restraint, literati such as the Gawain-poet and Chretien de Troyes helped a feudal society with an obsolete chivalric ideology adapt to the changing times.Less
This is an innovative and original exploration of the connections between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the most well-known works of medieval English literature, and the tradition of French Arthurian romance, best-known through the works of Chretien de Troyes two centuries earlier. The book compares Gawain with a wide range of French Arthurian romances, exploring their recurrent structural patterns and motifs, their ethical orientation and the social context in which they were produced. It presents a wealth of new sources and analogues, which provide illuminating points of comparison for analysis of the self-consciousness with which the Gawain-poet handled the staple ingredients of Arthurian romance. Throughout, the author pays close attention to the ways in which the modes of representation of Arthurian romance are related to social and historical context. By revealing in the course of their romances the importance of conscience, courtliness, and self-restraint, literati such as the Gawain-poet and Chretien de Troyes helped a feudal society with an obsolete chivalric ideology adapt to the changing times.
Sarah Kay
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151920
- eISBN:
- 9780191672903
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151920.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, European Literature
This is a major reassessment of the relation between the medieval French chansons de geste and the romance genre. Critics have traditionally seen romance as a superior development of the chanson de ...
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This is a major reassessment of the relation between the medieval French chansons de geste and the romance genre. Critics have traditionally seen romance as a superior development of the chanson de geste. The chansons de geste are seen as ‘formulaic’, composed from a public fund of pre-existant and primarily oral narratives and motifs; romance on the other hand, is seen as a more sophisticated product of a newly ‘literary’ story-telling, in line with the more complex social and political conditions of the time. The author rejects this ‘developmental’ model of literary history and, through detailed readings of large numbers of texts – from the well-known Renaut de Montauban or Raoul de Cambrai to the unjustly neglected Doon de la Roche or Orson de Beauvais – reveals the simultaneity of the chansons de geste and romance in medieval culture. Drawing tellingly on recent literary and feminist theory, the author argues that the chanson de geste and romance are engaged in a productive and telling dialogue; moreover, each genre illuminates the ‘political unconscious’ of the other: those political conflicts and contradictions that the text attempts to evade and disguise. In particular, the author contends that romance brings with it new forms of sexism and patriarchy – forms much closer to those of the present – and that these need to be read against the politics of sexual difference inscribed in chansons de geste.Less
This is a major reassessment of the relation between the medieval French chansons de geste and the romance genre. Critics have traditionally seen romance as a superior development of the chanson de geste. The chansons de geste are seen as ‘formulaic’, composed from a public fund of pre-existant and primarily oral narratives and motifs; romance on the other hand, is seen as a more sophisticated product of a newly ‘literary’ story-telling, in line with the more complex social and political conditions of the time. The author rejects this ‘developmental’ model of literary history and, through detailed readings of large numbers of texts – from the well-known Renaut de Montauban or Raoul de Cambrai to the unjustly neglected Doon de la Roche or Orson de Beauvais – reveals the simultaneity of the chansons de geste and romance in medieval culture. Drawing tellingly on recent literary and feminist theory, the author argues that the chanson de geste and romance are engaged in a productive and telling dialogue; moreover, each genre illuminates the ‘political unconscious’ of the other: those political conflicts and contradictions that the text attempts to evade and disguise. In particular, the author contends that romance brings with it new forms of sexism and patriarchy – forms much closer to those of the present – and that these need to be read against the politics of sexual difference inscribed in chansons de geste.
Andrew King
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187226
- eISBN:
- 9780191674662
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187226.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
Spenser's reception of the rich and complex imaginative, historical, and political traditions involved in Middle English romance is an aspect of The Faerie Queene which has been grossly neglected. ...
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Spenser's reception of the rich and complex imaginative, historical, and political traditions involved in Middle English romance is an aspect of The Faerie Queene which has been grossly neglected. Many areas and topics relating to Spenser's interaction with Middle English romance remain untouched, such as his completion in Book IV of Chaucer's Squire's Tale. This book has dealt only with Books I, II, and V because they arguably present a coherent narrative of response to native romance which does not necessitate detailed consideration of the convergent influences of Ariosto and Tasso; opening the door to Italianate romance, necessary in consideration of other books, would have resulted in a much larger, and possibly more diffuse study. The general neglect of interest in Spenser's use of native romance hopefully justifies a focused and single-minded book such as this.Less
Spenser's reception of the rich and complex imaginative, historical, and political traditions involved in Middle English romance is an aspect of The Faerie Queene which has been grossly neglected. Many areas and topics relating to Spenser's interaction with Middle English romance remain untouched, such as his completion in Book IV of Chaucer's Squire's Tale. This book has dealt only with Books I, II, and V because they arguably present a coherent narrative of response to native romance which does not necessitate detailed consideration of the convergent influences of Ariosto and Tasso; opening the door to Italianate romance, necessary in consideration of other books, would have resulted in a much larger, and possibly more diffuse study. The general neglect of interest in Spenser's use of native romance hopefully justifies a focused and single-minded book such as this.
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.
Thorlac Turville-Petre
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122791
- eISBN:
- 9780191671548
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122791.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This book pays attention to the earlier fourteenth century in England as a literary period in its own right. It surveys the wide range of writings by the generation before Geoffrey Chaucer, and ...
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This book pays attention to the earlier fourteenth century in England as a literary period in its own right. It surveys the wide range of writings by the generation before Geoffrey Chaucer, and explores how English writers in the half-century leading up to the outbreak of the Hundred Years War expressed their concepts of England as a nation, and how they exploited the association between nation, people, and language. At the centre of this work is a study of the construction of national identity that takes place in the histories written in English. The contributions of romances and saints' lives to an awareness of the nation's past are also considered, as is the question of how writers were able to reconcile their sense of regional identity with commitment to the nation. A final chapter explores the interrelationship between England's three languages, Latin, French and English, at a time when English was attaining the status of the national language. Middle English quotations are translated into modern English throughout.Less
This book pays attention to the earlier fourteenth century in England as a literary period in its own right. It surveys the wide range of writings by the generation before Geoffrey Chaucer, and explores how English writers in the half-century leading up to the outbreak of the Hundred Years War expressed their concepts of England as a nation, and how they exploited the association between nation, people, and language. At the centre of this work is a study of the construction of national identity that takes place in the histories written in English. The contributions of romances and saints' lives to an awareness of the nation's past are also considered, as is the question of how writers were able to reconcile their sense of regional identity with commitment to the nation. A final chapter explores the interrelationship between England's three languages, Latin, French and English, at a time when English was attaining the status of the national language. Middle English quotations are translated into modern English throughout.
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.
Susan Jones
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184485
- eISBN:
- 9780191674273
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184485.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This closing chapter demonstrates the importance of women's writing, women readers, female portraiture, and the relationship of text and illustration in the serialized novels in shaping Conrad's ...
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This closing chapter demonstrates the importance of women's writing, women readers, female portraiture, and the relationship of text and illustration in the serialized novels in shaping Conrad's later fiction. It draws attention to the re-emergence of Marguerite Poradowska's influence, and how, in the late work in particular, Conrad exploited the techniques of traditional forms in order to question the structures of romance which continued to confine and classify women.Less
This closing chapter demonstrates the importance of women's writing, women readers, female portraiture, and the relationship of text and illustration in the serialized novels in shaping Conrad's later fiction. It draws attention to the re-emergence of Marguerite Poradowska's influence, and how, in the late work in particular, Conrad exploited the techniques of traditional forms in order to question the structures of romance which continued to confine and classify women.
Susan Jones
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198184485
- eISBN:
- 9780191674273
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198184485.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Joseph Conrad is widely recognised as a writer of sea stories with predominantly masculine themes. This book argues that despite this established reputation, Conrad did not neglect women's themes in ...
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Joseph Conrad is widely recognised as a writer of sea stories with predominantly masculine themes. This book argues that despite this established reputation, Conrad did not neglect women's themes in all his works. The evidence of his biography, correspondence, and fiction indicates a complex and intriguing relationship between Conrad, the women in his life, his female characters, and readers of his work. He began in the Malay fiction by producing prominent female figures whose position offered an important critique of imperialism, a role that women continued to fulfill in the political works of the middle years, such as Nostromo, The Secret Agent, and Under Western Eyes. He increasingly turned to the issue of gender, female identity, and in relation to romance, how women are invited to conform to its conventionalised gestures and plots.Less
Joseph Conrad is widely recognised as a writer of sea stories with predominantly masculine themes. This book argues that despite this established reputation, Conrad did not neglect women's themes in all his works. The evidence of his biography, correspondence, and fiction indicates a complex and intriguing relationship between Conrad, the women in his life, his female characters, and readers of his work. He began in the Malay fiction by producing prominent female figures whose position offered an important critique of imperialism, a role that women continued to fulfill in the political works of the middle years, such as Nostromo, The Secret Agent, and Under Western Eyes. He increasingly turned to the issue of gender, female identity, and in relation to romance, how women are invited to conform to its conventionalised gestures and plots.
BONNIE S. McDOUGALL
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199256792
- eISBN:
- 9780191698378
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256792.003.0024
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter compares attitudes towards privacy among modern Chinese writers who published or withheld their love-letters from publication, in the context of modern Chinese history. The unstated ...
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This chapter compares attitudes towards privacy among modern Chinese writers who published or withheld their love-letters from publication, in the context of modern Chinese history. The unstated theme throughout Letters between Two and the OC was Lu Xun and Xu Guangping's search for privacy. As a collection of love-letters published by its authors, Letters between Two was not unique. Its special quality lies in the extent and nature of its editing. As one of the very few letter collections where the original letters can be read alongside the published version, it also allowed readers a unique perspective on what Lu Xun regarded as most private in his life. The correspondence also provided an authentic glimpse into the changing face of social life in China: how one couple in the public eye coped with new thinking on love, sex, and marriage.Less
This chapter compares attitudes towards privacy among modern Chinese writers who published or withheld their love-letters from publication, in the context of modern Chinese history. The unstated theme throughout Letters between Two and the OC was Lu Xun and Xu Guangping's search for privacy. As a collection of love-letters published by its authors, Letters between Two was not unique. Its special quality lies in the extent and nature of its editing. As one of the very few letter collections where the original letters can be read alongside the published version, it also allowed readers a unique perspective on what Lu Xun regarded as most private in his life. The correspondence also provided an authentic glimpse into the changing face of social life in China: how one couple in the public eye coped with new thinking on love, sex, and marriage.
Sydney Finkelstein, Donald C. Hambrick, and Albert A. Cannella
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195162073
- eISBN:
- 9780199867332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162073.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
The chapter commences with an overview of the literature on executive roles, but then primarily addresses the central debate over whether top executives really have much influence on what happens to ...
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The chapter commences with an overview of the literature on executive roles, but then primarily addresses the central debate over whether top executives really have much influence on what happens to their organizations. On one side of the debate is much of the work in strategic management, which asserts that top executives can greatly affect—for good or for ill—the form and fate of their companies. On the other side, various schools within organizational theory—notably population ecology, contingency theory, and institutional theory—have argued that executives are greatly constrained by inertial, environmental, and normative forces. The chapter primarily elaborates on Hambrick and Finkelstein's introduction of the concept of “managerial discretion” as a theoretical lever for resolving this debate. The amount of managerial discretion, or latitude of action, that a given executive possesses arises from environmental, organizational, and individual factors. The chapter concludes with an overview of the literature on “the romance of leadership,” or the human tendency to believe that managers make a difference.Less
The chapter commences with an overview of the literature on executive roles, but then primarily addresses the central debate over whether top executives really have much influence on what happens to their organizations. On one side of the debate is much of the work in strategic management, which asserts that top executives can greatly affect—for good or for ill—the form and fate of their companies. On the other side, various schools within organizational theory—notably population ecology, contingency theory, and institutional theory—have argued that executives are greatly constrained by inertial, environmental, and normative forces. The chapter primarily elaborates on Hambrick and Finkelstein's introduction of the concept of “managerial discretion” as a theoretical lever for resolving this debate. The amount of managerial discretion, or latitude of action, that a given executive possesses arises from environmental, organizational, and individual factors. The chapter concludes with an overview of the literature on “the romance of leadership,” or the human tendency to believe that managers make a difference.
Martin Francis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199277483
- eISBN:
- 9780191699948
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199277483.003.0050
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. It argues that the flyer continues to be held in high esteem because his courage and sacrifice coincided with the last hurrah of the ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. It argues that the flyer continues to be held in high esteem because his courage and sacrifice coincided with the last hurrah of the romance of flight. However, while he had attained rarefied status through his ability to ride above the clouds, in a world still inaccessible and unfamiliar to his contemporaries, the flyer was also grounded in the sensibilities, values, and social fabric of the society from which he came, albeit one that was being violently refashioned by the requirements of wartime mobilisation.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. It argues that the flyer continues to be held in high esteem because his courage and sacrifice coincided with the last hurrah of the romance of flight. However, while he had attained rarefied status through his ability to ride above the clouds, in a world still inaccessible and unfamiliar to his contemporaries, the flyer was also grounded in the sensibilities, values, and social fabric of the society from which he came, albeit one that was being violently refashioned by the requirements of wartime mobilisation.
Adele Reinhartz
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195146967
- eISBN:
- 9780199785469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146967.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter looks at the Gospels' references to Mary Magdalene and some of the traditions about her that arose in the early church, particularly the view, unsupported in the Gospels, that she was a ...
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This chapter looks at the Gospels' references to Mary Magdalene and some of the traditions about her that arose in the early church, particularly the view, unsupported in the Gospels, that she was a prostitute and/or adulterous. It traces the changing representation of Mary Magdalene from the silent era to the present, focusing on four questions: What was Mary's life like before meeting up with Jesus? How did she meet Jesus and come to travel with him? What was her status among and relationship with the disciples? And, most intriguing, what was her relationship with Jesus?Less
This chapter looks at the Gospels' references to Mary Magdalene and some of the traditions about her that arose in the early church, particularly the view, unsupported in the Gospels, that she was a prostitute and/or adulterous. It traces the changing representation of Mary Magdalene from the silent era to the present, focusing on four questions: What was Mary's life like before meeting up with Jesus? How did she meet Jesus and come to travel with him? What was her status among and relationship with the disciples? And, most intriguing, what was her relationship with Jesus?
MacDonald P. Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199260508
- eISBN:
- 9780191717635
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199260508.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
‘That very great play, Pericles’, as T. S. Eliot called it, poses formidable problems of text and authorship. The first of the Late Romances, it was ascribed to Shakespeare when printed in a quarto ...
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‘That very great play, Pericles’, as T. S. Eliot called it, poses formidable problems of text and authorship. The first of the Late Romances, it was ascribed to Shakespeare when printed in a quarto of 1609, but was not included in the First Folio (1623) collection of his plays. This book examines rival theories about the quarto's origins and offers compelling evidence that Pericles is the product of collaboration between Shakespeare and the minor dramatist George Wilkins, who was responsible for the first two acts and for portions of the ‘brothel scenes’ in Act 4. Pericles serves as a test case for methodologies that seek to define the limits of the Shakespeare canon and to identify co-authors. A wide range of metrical, lexical, and other data is analysed. Computerized ‘stylometric’ texts are explained and their findings assessed. A concluding chapter introduces a new technique that has the potential to answer many of the remaining questions of attribution associated with Shakespeare and his contemporaries.Less
‘That very great play, Pericles’, as T. S. Eliot called it, poses formidable problems of text and authorship. The first of the Late Romances, it was ascribed to Shakespeare when printed in a quarto of 1609, but was not included in the First Folio (1623) collection of his plays. This book examines rival theories about the quarto's origins and offers compelling evidence that Pericles is the product of collaboration between Shakespeare and the minor dramatist George Wilkins, who was responsible for the first two acts and for portions of the ‘brothel scenes’ in Act 4. Pericles serves as a test case for methodologies that seek to define the limits of the Shakespeare canon and to identify co-authors. A wide range of metrical, lexical, and other data is analysed. Computerized ‘stylometric’ texts are explained and their findings assessed. A concluding chapter introduces a new technique that has the potential to answer many of the remaining questions of attribution associated with Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
ROGER SCRUTON
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195166910
- eISBN:
- 9780199863938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195166910.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, Opera
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. Tristan und Isolde planted in the minds of modern artists a new vision of their goal, which was to present the secret regions of the ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. Tristan und Isolde planted in the minds of modern artists a new vision of their goal, which was to present the secret regions of the psyche in ritualized and symbolic form. However, its far-reaching influence on French symbolism and English romanticism should not blind us to the fact that its most enduring artistic legacy is to be observed in the modernists. Without Tristan there would not be modern music or modern literature as we know them. Wagner devised a new task for art: to retrace the steps from romance back to ritual, to move backward from the open, self-explaining narrative to the rite in which the human truth can be shown but not told.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. Tristan und Isolde planted in the minds of modern artists a new vision of their goal, which was to present the secret regions of the psyche in ritualized and symbolic form. However, its far-reaching influence on French symbolism and English romanticism should not blind us to the fact that its most enduring artistic legacy is to be observed in the modernists. Without Tristan there would not be modern music or modern literature as we know them. Wagner devised a new task for art: to retrace the steps from romance back to ritual, to move backward from the open, self-explaining narrative to the rite in which the human truth can be shown but not told.
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.
Ayşe Çelikkol
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199769001
- eISBN:
- 9780199896943
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199769001.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
THis book offers a new account of the cultural work of romance in nineteenth-century Britain. The book argues that novelists and playwrights employed this genre to represent a radically new ...
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THis book offers a new account of the cultural work of romance in nineteenth-century Britain. The book argues that novelists and playwrights employed this genre to represent a radically new historical formation: the emergence of the global free market economy. In previous centuries, the British state had pursued an economic policy that privileged domestic goods over foreign ones. Through the first half of the nineteenth century, liberal economists maintained that commodity traffic across national borders should move outside the purview of the state, and their position gained increasing support. Amid economic transformation, Britons pondered the effects of vertiginous circulation. Would patriotic attachment to the homeland dissolve along with the preference for domestic goods? What would be the fate of the nation and the empire if commerce were uncontrollable? The literary genre of romance, characterized by protagonists who drift in lawless spaces, played a privileged role in addressing such pressing questions. From the figure of the smuggler to episodic plot structure, romance elements in fiction and drama narrated sprawling global markets and the fluidity of capital. Exploring works by Walter Scott, Harriet Martineau, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, and their lesser-known contemporaries, this book historicizes globalization as it traces the sense of dissolving borders and the perceived decline of national sovereignty back into the nineteenth century.Less
THis book offers a new account of the cultural work of romance in nineteenth-century Britain. The book argues that novelists and playwrights employed this genre to represent a radically new historical formation: the emergence of the global free market economy. In previous centuries, the British state had pursued an economic policy that privileged domestic goods over foreign ones. Through the first half of the nineteenth century, liberal economists maintained that commodity traffic across national borders should move outside the purview of the state, and their position gained increasing support. Amid economic transformation, Britons pondered the effects of vertiginous circulation. Would patriotic attachment to the homeland dissolve along with the preference for domestic goods? What would be the fate of the nation and the empire if commerce were uncontrollable? The literary genre of romance, characterized by protagonists who drift in lawless spaces, played a privileged role in addressing such pressing questions. From the figure of the smuggler to episodic plot structure, romance elements in fiction and drama narrated sprawling global markets and the fluidity of capital. Exploring works by Walter Scott, Harriet Martineau, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, and their lesser-known contemporaries, this book historicizes globalization as it traces the sense of dissolving borders and the perceived decline of national sovereignty back into the nineteenth century.
Stephen R. Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264607
- eISBN:
- 9780191734366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264607.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter examines the Surmiran dialect which is a form of Swiss Rumantsch. Surmiran is a Romance language which is one of the spoken languages in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The ...
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This chapter examines the Surmiran dialect which is a form of Swiss Rumantsch. Surmiran is a Romance language which is one of the spoken languages in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The emphasis of this chapter is on a single verb which lacks many of the forms other verbs possess, hence forcing the speakers to use a distinct, but almost synonymous verb as an alternative. Treated within a broader context, the verb dueir in Sumiran which is a Latin reflex of the dēbēre, provides an opportunity to evaluate how gaps should be treated within the context of Optimal Theory. This defectiveness in the Surmiran dueir was a result of the morphologization of the vowel alternations of the Swiss Rumantsch.Less
This chapter examines the Surmiran dialect which is a form of Swiss Rumantsch. Surmiran is a Romance language which is one of the spoken languages in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The emphasis of this chapter is on a single verb which lacks many of the forms other verbs possess, hence forcing the speakers to use a distinct, but almost synonymous verb as an alternative. Treated within a broader context, the verb dueir in Sumiran which is a Latin reflex of the dēbēre, provides an opportunity to evaluate how gaps should be treated within the context of Optimal Theory. This defectiveness in the Surmiran dueir was a result of the morphologization of the vowel alternations of the Swiss Rumantsch.
