A Medievalist in the Eighteenth Century
A Medievalist in the Eighteenth Century

Author: Geoffrey Wilson

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 9401013705

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It is a common belief that in France the study of medieval literature as literature only began to gain recognition as a valid occupation for the scholar during the nineteenth century. It is well known that historians of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries looked to the literary productions of the Middle Ages for materials useful to their researches, but it is only recently that the remarkable frequency of this reference has been appreciated and that scholars have become aware of an unbroken tradition of what might best be described as historically ori ented medievalism stretching from the sixteenth century to our own. The eighteenth century has drawn the greatest number of curious to this field, for it is evident that the surprisingly extensive researches undertaken then do much to explain the progress made a century later by the most celebrated generation of medievalistst. Very slowly we are coming to see the value of the contribution made by little known schol ars like La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, Etienne Barbazan and the Comte de Caylus.

The Romance of the Violet and Other Wager Tales from Medieval France
The Romance of the Violet and Other Wager Tales from Medieval France

Author:

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2024-08-14

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1476694370

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A high-stakes wager placed on a woman's virtue; men who spy on bathing women; tell-tale birthmarks; cross-dressing; dragons; tournaments; and aristocrats bursting into song--these features and more appear in the three stories translated here, all versions of the folktale known as "the wager tale." Such stories were especially popular in thirteenth-century France, when noblemen fulfilled their feudal duties far from home. Did their women remain faithful? A pressing question, for only female chastity guaranteed the legitimacy of heirs. This collection offers the first translations into English of The Romance of the Violet and The Count of Poitiers, along with a new version of The Tale of King Flore and the Fair Joan. The first paints a vivid portrait of thirteenth-century courtly life. The second, set in the eighth-century court of King Pepin, includes both a wager tale and a bride quest, the latter involving a shocking scene of female group nudity. Flore and Joan takes a different tack, presenting a clear-eyed heroine who overcomes daunting odds by posing as a man. These medieval tales portray strong women who gainsay social control of their bodies, thereby winning the respect of men--a scenario that resonates even today.

The Art of Medieval French Romance
The Art of Medieval French Romance

Author: Douglas Kelly

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 1992-04-15

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 9780299131906

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Douglas Kelly provides a comprehensive and historically valid analysis of the art of medieval French romance as the romancers themselves describe it. He focuses on well-known writers, such as Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France, and also draws on a wide range of other sources—prose romances, non-Arthurian romances, thirteenth-century verse romances, and variant versions from the later Middle Ages. Kelly is the first scholar to present the “art” of medieval romance to a modern audience through the interventions and comments of medieval writers themselves. The book begins by examining the difficulties scholars perceive in medieval literature: problems such as source and intertextuality, structure in its manifold modern meanings, and character psychology and individuality. These issues frame Kelly’s identification and discussion of all the known authorial interventions on the art and craft of romance. Kelly’s careful reconstruction of the “art” of romance, based on the records left by the romancers themselves, will be an invaluable resource and guide for all medievalists.

The Old French Fabliaux
The Old French Fabliaux

Author: Anne Elizabeth Cobby

Publisher: Tamesis Books

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13:

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Concise accounts of editions and studies of the Old French fabliaux. The Old French fabliaux form a corpus of over 120 short comic verse narratives from the late twelfth to the early fourteenth centuries which has been the subject of very active work over the last thirty years, building on continuous though less intensive interest over the previous century. There are many editions, a society and a journal devoted to fabliaux study but, until now, no bibliographical survey. The author of this analytical bibliography takes a wide view of the definition of the genre in French but does not include work primarily on Chaucerian fabliaux or those in other languages. Around 1,000 entries offer precise, well judged and well written accounts of workspublished in this area of study. ANNE COBBY is Librarian of the Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge.