Author: Gwendolyne Knight

Publisher:

Published: 2020-09-15

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9782503585864

This anthology explores depictions of alterity, monstrosity and deviation in medieval Icelandic literature, Scandinavian history, and beyond. The authors explore issues of identity, genre, character and text and the interplay between them, challenging long-held perceptions about the lack of ambiguity in Old Norse literature and culture.00Medieval Icelandic literature has often been reduced to the supposedly realist Íslendingasögur and their main protagonists at the expense of other genres and characters. Indeed, such a focus obscures and erases the importance of those beings and narratives that move on the margins of mainstream culture ? whether socially, ethnically, ontologically, or textually. This volume aims to offer a new perspective on a variety of theoretical and comparative approaches to explore depictions of alterity, monstrosity, and deviation. Engaging with the interplay of genre, character, text, and culture, and exploring questions of behavioural, socio-cultural, and textual alterity, these contributions examine subjects ranging from the study of fragmented and ?Othered? saga narratives, to attitudes towards foreign people and lands, and alterities in mythological and legendary texts. Together the papers effectively challenge long-held perceptions about the lack of ambiguity in medieval Icelandic literature, and offer a far more nuanced understanding of the importance of the ?Other? in that society.00Rebecca Merkelbach is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Tübingen. Her monograph on social monstrosity in the Sagas of Icelanders has recently been published with Medieval Institute Publications00Gwendolyne Knight received her PhD from Stockholm University. Her dissertation focused on anthropological interpretations of shapeshifting in Northern European contexts.