Textual Subjectivity
The Encoding of Subjectivity in Medieval Narratives and Lyrics
Published on 27. October 2005
Book
Hardback
282 pages
978-0-19-818724-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book investigates how subjectivity is encoded in the texts of a wide variety of medieval narratives and lyrics - not how they express the subjectivity of individuals, but how subjectivity, escaping the bounds of individuality, is incorporated in the linguistic fabric of their texts. Most of the poems discussed are in English, and the book includes analyses of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Man of Law's Tale, and Complaint Unto Pity, the works of the Pearl poet, Havelok the Dane, the lyric sequence attributed to Charles of Orleans (the earliest such sequence in English), and many anonymous poems. It also devotes sections to Ovid's Heroides and to poems by the troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn. For the first time, it brings to bear on medieval narratives and lyrics a body of theory which denies the supposed necessity for literary texts to have narrators or 'speakers', and in doing so reveals the implausibilities into which a dogmatic assumption of this necessity has led much of the last century's criticism.
Reviews / Votes
criticism of the highest order, both subtle and impressive... it is hard to stem one's praise for this rich and rewarding volume. Seldom does one meet a work on the Middle Age so well written, so lucid, so wise. * Andrew Breeze, Modern Language Review * ...refreshing and important... This is a book, in short, that should be read and pondered by every medievalist, and by most modernists too: a clear breeze that disperses the obfuscations of many decades to leave the poets visible once again. * Medium Aevum, Volume LXXVI *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academics and graduate students in medieval literature, as well as in narrative theory and literary theory generally.
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
532 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-818724-0 (9780198187240)
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.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
A. C. Spearing is Professor of English at the University of Virginia and Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge.
Content
1. SUBJECTIVITY AND TEXTUALITY ; 'Writing is nothing but the representation of speech' ; 'There can be no narrative without a narrator' ; Did Subjectivity Emerge? ; The Following Chapters ; 2. ROMANCES ; King Horn ; Havelok ; 3. TROILUS AND CRISEYDE ; The Narrator in Troilus Criticism ; Is There a Fallible Narrator? ; Is There a Distinct Narratorial Discourse? ; The Narrator and Criseyde ; 4. THE MAN OF LAW'S TALE ; Narrators in Canterbury Tales Criticism ; The Man of Law as Fallible Narrator ; Subjectivized Narration ; The Achievement of the Man of Law's Tale ; 5. NARRATION IN THE PEARL POET ; 'Third-Person' Narration ; 'First-Person' Narration ; 6. LYRICS ; What is a Lyric? ; 'Lovers that kan make of sentement' ; Lyric as Dramatic Monologue? ; Chaucer's Complaint Unto Pity ; 7. EPISTOLARY POEMS ; Ovid's Heroides ; Two Middle English Epistolary Lyrics