Katherine A. Brown
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813049175
- eISBN:
- 9780813050034
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813049175.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
The Old French fabliaux are humorous short stories from the 13th century that resemble some of the most memorable tales in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (1348-1351). Yet their humor and ostensible ...
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The Old French fabliaux are humorous short stories from the 13th century that resemble some of the most memorable tales in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (1348-1351). Yet their humor and ostensible frivolity conceal a serious challenge to didactic literature. A century later, Boccaccio used these types of tales to promote the openness of literary interpretation as a choice for the reader. This study shows that the fabliaux had a greater influence on the Decameron than has previously been recognized. Boccaccio took from the fabliaux the use of reversal as a technique for manipulating narrative structure; in addition, the manuscripts in which the fabliaux were transmitted served as models for the organization of the Decameron. The use of reversal in both the fabliaux and the Decameron underscores a paradigm shift in medieval thinking away from purely didactic literature toward a literature of enjoyment. Reversal in the fabliaux brings together linguistic and thematic opposites and interchanges them in order to show that these opposites offer equally valid positions from which the stories can be interpreted. Reversal also allows the fabliaux to adapt to a variety of contemporaneous genres while still maintaining their fundamental character. The fabliaux's use of reversal disrupts the moral didacticism preserved with the texts in manuscript anthologies. As Boccaccio standardized the medieval short story in the Decameron, he drew from both the fabliaux tradition and from the manuscript anthologies in which they were transmitted in order to conjoin diverse genres and provoke a multiplicity of interpretations.Less
The Old French fabliaux are humorous short stories from the 13th century that resemble some of the most memorable tales in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (1348-1351). Yet their humor and ostensible frivolity conceal a serious challenge to didactic literature. A century later, Boccaccio used these types of tales to promote the openness of literary interpretation as a choice for the reader. This study shows that the fabliaux had a greater influence on the Decameron than has previously been recognized. Boccaccio took from the fabliaux the use of reversal as a technique for manipulating narrative structure; in addition, the manuscripts in which the fabliaux were transmitted served as models for the organization of the Decameron. The use of reversal in both the fabliaux and the Decameron underscores a paradigm shift in medieval thinking away from purely didactic literature toward a literature of enjoyment. Reversal in the fabliaux brings together linguistic and thematic opposites and interchanges them in order to show that these opposites offer equally valid positions from which the stories can be interpreted. Reversal also allows the fabliaux to adapt to a variety of contemporaneous genres while still maintaining their fundamental character. The fabliaux's use of reversal disrupts the moral didacticism preserved with the texts in manuscript anthologies. As Boccaccio standardized the medieval short story in the Decameron, he drew from both the fabliaux tradition and from the manuscript anthologies in which they were transmitted in order to conjoin diverse genres and provoke a multiplicity of interpretations.
Lucy Evans
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781381182
- eISBN:
- 9781781384855
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381182.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The Conclusion brings together the eight texts analysed in the book, comparing and contrasting the kinds of community depicted in each and the ways each writer utilises the form of the short story ...
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The Conclusion brings together the eight texts analysed in the book, comparing and contrasting the kinds of community depicted in each and the ways each writer utilises the form of the short story collection or cycle as a means of articulating these. It then returns to Édouard Glissant’s, Antonio Benítez-Rojo’s and Wilson Harris’s differing models of association discussed in the Introduction, considering the extent to which the literary portrayals of community examined in the book resonate with these theoretical models. The Conclusion argues that the book’s textual readings demonstrate the flexibility and dynamism of the short story collection and cycle, since in each case the text’s narrative structure emerges out of the writer’s unique engagement with community. Finally, the Conclusion comments on how the book’s textual readings have illuminated connections and tensions between literary and anthropological representations of Caribbean communities, and reflects on the benefits of interdisciplinarity in Caribbean studies.Less
The Conclusion brings together the eight texts analysed in the book, comparing and contrasting the kinds of community depicted in each and the ways each writer utilises the form of the short story collection or cycle as a means of articulating these. It then returns to Édouard Glissant’s, Antonio Benítez-Rojo’s and Wilson Harris’s differing models of association discussed in the Introduction, considering the extent to which the literary portrayals of community examined in the book resonate with these theoretical models. The Conclusion argues that the book’s textual readings demonstrate the flexibility and dynamism of the short story collection and cycle, since in each case the text’s narrative structure emerges out of the writer’s unique engagement with community. Finally, the Conclusion comments on how the book’s textual readings have illuminated connections and tensions between literary and anthropological representations of Caribbean communities, and reflects on the benefits of interdisciplinarity in Caribbean studies.
Carol Boggess
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780813174181
- eISBN:
- 9780813174815
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813174181.003.0023
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter describes how in the last stage of his career Still turned his attention to publishing. Between 1965 and 1978, he published or reprinted eight titles, four of which were books for ...
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This chapter describes how in the last stage of his career Still turned his attention to publishing. Between 1965 and 1978, he published or reprinted eight titles, four of which were books for children published by Putnam’s. The turning points in his career were Pattern of a Man, a story collection published by Gnomon Press in 1976, and a new edition of River of Earth published by University Press of Kentucky in 1978. Less
This chapter describes how in the last stage of his career Still turned his attention to publishing. Between 1965 and 1978, he published or reprinted eight titles, four of which were books for children published by Putnam’s. The turning points in his career were Pattern of a Man, a story collection published by Gnomon Press in 1976, and a new edition of River of Earth published by University Press of Kentucky in 1978.
Frédéric Dumas
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617036828
- eISBN:
- 9781617036835
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617036828.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter discusses Percival Everett’s short-story collection, Damned if I Do, which displays characters striving to reach an appropriate balance between the wildness of their environment and ...
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This chapter discusses Percival Everett’s short-story collection, Damned if I Do, which displays characters striving to reach an appropriate balance between the wildness of their environment and their largely unsettled lives. With its focus on a lonely hero determined to fight for the preservation of his land in New Mexico and the halcyon lifestyle the landscape would afford him against a planned urban development zone, “True Romance” stands out as the only story in the collection directly concerned with environmental activism. Everett’s poetic universe in “True Romance” is grounded in an American literary tradition that extols the positive values of nature, particularly those of the West, which has often been endowed with a mythical dimension that paradoxically denies it a tangible existence.Less
This chapter discusses Percival Everett’s short-story collection, Damned if I Do, which displays characters striving to reach an appropriate balance between the wildness of their environment and their largely unsettled lives. With its focus on a lonely hero determined to fight for the preservation of his land in New Mexico and the halcyon lifestyle the landscape would afford him against a planned urban development zone, “True Romance” stands out as the only story in the collection directly concerned with environmental activism. Everett’s poetic universe in “True Romance” is grounded in an American literary tradition that extols the positive values of nature, particularly those of the West, which has often been endowed with a mythical dimension that paradoxically denies it a tangible existence.
Dionne Gordon Kirschner
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807837238
- eISBN:
- 9781469601427
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807837559_rotskoff.5
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter shows how the author grew to appreciate how Free to Be … You and Me and music had influenced not only her but so many other children of her generation. Free to Be was so special—it was ...
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This chapter shows how the author grew to appreciate how Free to Be … You and Me and music had influenced not only her but so many other children of her generation. Free to Be was so special—it was like nothing else from its time. This collection of stories and music shaped the dreams and ambitions of millions of boys and girls. To this day, when a stranger or acquaintance somehow learns that the author was “The Dionne” mentioned in the dedication at the beginning of the book or on the back of that pink record, a wonderful story always follows about what the book meant to them and their siblings as children. A lot of times, people will just break into song.Less
This chapter shows how the author grew to appreciate how Free to Be … You and Me and music had influenced not only her but so many other children of her generation. Free to Be was so special—it was like nothing else from its time. This collection of stories and music shaped the dreams and ambitions of millions of boys and girls. To this day, when a stranger or acquaintance somehow learns that the author was “The Dionne” mentioned in the dedication at the beginning of the book or on the back of that pink record, a wonderful story always follows about what the book meant to them and their siblings as children. A lot of times, people will just break into song.
James Davis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231157841
- eISBN:
- 9780231538619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231157841.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter discusses Walrond's final years, which were spent in a London radically changed after World War II. He made the acquaintance of Erica Marx, who needed help with a “Negro poetry” ...
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This chapter discusses Walrond's final years, which were spent in a London radically changed after World War II. He made the acquaintance of Erica Marx, who needed help with a “Negro poetry” performance she wished to stage in London, the first event of its kind in England. The project rekindled his sense of involvement at the leading edge of a black cultural initiative, even as it faced difficulties in this new London—one in which race relations seemed to have declined over the years. More notable during the latter years of his life was the possibility of a reprint of his short story collection, Tropic Death, published with a new dedication for his three daughters. He would never live to see it in print, but one could not help but think that the prospect of its reissue was a kind of vindication.Less
This chapter discusses Walrond's final years, which were spent in a London radically changed after World War II. He made the acquaintance of Erica Marx, who needed help with a “Negro poetry” performance she wished to stage in London, the first event of its kind in England. The project rekindled his sense of involvement at the leading edge of a black cultural initiative, even as it faced difficulties in this new London—one in which race relations seemed to have declined over the years. More notable during the latter years of his life was the possibility of a reprint of his short story collection, Tropic Death, published with a new dedication for his three daughters. He would never live to see it in print, but one could not help but think that the prospect of its reissue was a kind of vindication.
