The Grail
A Casebook
1st Edition
Published on 27. February 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
610 pages
978-1-138-86895-3 (ISBN)
Description
Whether it is a cup of plenty or the container of Christ's blood, the Holy Grail has always been a symbol of aspiration and longing. This volume surveys representations of the Holy Grail in literature, art, and film from the Middle Ages to the present day. A substantial introduction tracing the development of the legend is followed by a 200-item bibliography and twenty critical essays, seven of which have been written specially for this volume. The motifs of the Grail, the Quest, the Waste Land, and the Fisher King are explored, as well as the characters of Perceval, Lancelot, Galahad, and Joseph of Arimathea. Specific topics discussed include the origins and symbolism of the legend; the visual treatment of the legend in medieval manuscript illumination and in pre-Raphaelite painting; and the narrative treatment of the legend by medieval writers in French, German, and English, by nineteenth- and twentieth-century poets, and by twentieth-century novelists and film-makers.
Reviews / Votes
"...surely one of the most valuable [works] to date, and the first I would recommend for library collections and to individuals interested in the high and (sometimes even un) holy history of the Grail.""...excellent book... Very strongly recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- Choice
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
759 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-138-86895-3 (9781138868953)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
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Content
Introduction, Dhira B. Mahoney * The Quest of Origins, Glenys Witchard Goetinck. * The Central Symbol of the Legend: The Grail as Vessel, Emma Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz * Perceval or Le Conte du Graal, Jean Frappier * Punishment in the Perlesvaus : The Theme of the Waste Land, A. J. Kennedy * Seeing the Grail: Prologomena to a Study of the Grail in the Queste and Estoire, Alison Stones * A Story of Interpretations: The Quest del Saint Graal as Metaliterature, Lawrence N. de Looze * Dying to Get to Sarras: Perceval's Sister and the Grail Quest, Janina Traxler * The Symbolism of the Grail in Wolfram von Eschenbach, Friedrich Ranke * The Truest and Holiest Tale: Malory's Transformation of La Quest del Saint Graal, Dhira B. Mahoney * Chivalric Nationalism and the Holy Grail in John Hardyng's Chronicle, Felicity Riddy * Scandals of Faith and Gender in Tennyson's Grail Poems, Linda Hughes * Pure Hearts and Clean Hands: The Victorians and the Grail, Debra N. Mancoff * From Logres to Carbonek: The Arthuriad of Charles Williams, Karl Heinz Gsller * Walker Percy's Grail, J. Donald Crowley and Sue Mitchell Crowley * The Grail in Modern Fiction: Sacred Symbol in a Secular Age, Raymond H. Thompson * Hollywood's New Weston: The Grail Myth in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and John Boorman's Excalibur, Martin Shichtman