Romance and History
Imagining Time from the Medieval to the Early Modern Period
Published on 8. January 2015
Book
Hardback
338 pages
978-1-107-04278-0 (ISBN)
Description
To what extent can imaginative events be situated in time and history? From the medieval to the early modern period, this question is intriguingly explored in the expansive literary genre of romance. This collective study, edited by Jon Whitman, is the first systematic investigation of that formative process during more than four hundred years. While concentrating on changing configurations of romance itself, the volume examines a number of important related reference points, from epic to chronicle to critical theory. Recalling but qualifying conventional approaches to the three 'matters' of Rome, Britain, and France, the far-reaching inquiry engages major works in a variety of idioms, including Latin, French, English, German, Italian, and Spanish. With contributions from a range of internationally distinguished scholars, this unique volume offers a carefully coordinated framework for enriching not only the reading of romance, but also the understanding of changing attitudes toward the temporal process at large.
Reviews / Votes
'This book is a comprehensive compilation of resources, dates, names, titles, and a deep literary analysis ... I believe this is essential reading for those interested in the representation of history in the past, and a excellent resource for Medieval and Early Modern experts.' Angela P. Pacheco, BSLS Reviews 'This is a fascinating and very informative collection of essays, which succeeds admirably in collectively breaking some new ground in the exploration of topics and texts that are otherwise covered extensively in their respective fields of study.' Raluca Radulescu, Journal of Literature and HistoryMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
644 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-107-04278-0 (9781107042780)
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
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
07/2017
Cambridge University Press
€49.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
E-Book
01/2015
Cambridge University Press
€21.99
Available for download
E-Book
12/2014
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
€26.49
Available for download
Person
Jon Whitman teaches in the Department of English of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where for many years he also directed the Center for Literary Studies. He has published a range of essays on approaches to romance and history, and he is the author of Allegory: The Dynamics of an Ancient and Medieval Technique (1987) and the editor of Interpretation and Allegory: Antiquity to the Modern Period (2000).
Content
Preface; Part I. Opening Perspectives: 1. Romance and history: designing the times Jon Whitman; Part II. The Matter of Rome (and Realms to the East): Approaches to Antiquity: 2. Fearful histories: the past contained in the romances of antiquity Christopher Baswell; 3. Troy and Rome, two narrative presentations of history in the thirteenth century: the Roman de Troie en prose and the Faits des Romains Catherine Croizy-Naquet; Part III. The Matter of Britain: Social and Spiritual Drives: 4. Inescapable history: Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain and Arthurian romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Robert W. Hanning; 5. Gottfried, Wolfram, and the Angevins: history, genealogy, and fiction in the Tristan and Parzival romances Adrian Stevens; 6. Fictional history as ideology: functions of the grail legend from Robert de Boron to the Roman de Perceforest Friedrich Wolfzettel; 7. The prose Brut, Hardyng's Chronicle, and the alliterative Morte Arthure: the end of the story Edward Donald Kennedy; 8. Arthur in transition: Malory's Morte Darthur Helen Cooper; Part IV. The Matters of France and Italy: Acts of Recollection and Invention: 9. The Chanson de geste as a construction of memory Jean-Pierre Martin; 10. Ruggiero's story: the making of a dynastic hero Riccardo Bruscagli; 11. Temporality and narrative structure in European romance from the late fifteenth century to the early sixteenth century Marco Praloran; Part V. Matters of Fabulation and Fact: Shifting Registers: 12. The disparagement of chivalric romance for its lack of historicity in sixteenth-century Italian poetics Daniel Javitch; 13. Romance and history in Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata David Quint; 14. The thinking of history in Spenserian romance Gordon Teskey; 15. La Cava: romance and history in Corral and Cervantes Marina S. Brownlee; Part VI. Closing Reference Points: 16. Afterword and afterward: romance, history, time Jon Whitman; Select bibliography.