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Detailed readings of four major medieval cycles. This is a study of four colossal medieval works - the Cycle de Guillaume d'Orange, the Vulgate Cycle, the Prose Tristan and the Roman de Renart - which are normally considered separately. By placing them side-by-side for analysis, Luke Sunderland is able to argue for an aesthetic of cyclicity that cuts across genre. He combines detailed readings of the narrative infrastructure of each cycle with attention to the shifts and transformations that come with successive acts of rewriting. Old French Narrative Cycles focuses in particular on revisions and controversies around heroic figures, arguing that competition between alternative heroes within ...
"This volume of the "Arthurian Characters and Themes" series is the only one dealing with theme, rather than character. Essays include both newly commissioned and reprinted articles that explore a variety of issues regarding the Arthurian search for the Holy Grail. Topics include analysis of the Grail as vessel, Perceval's sister in the Grail quest, the symbolism of the Grail in Wolfram, chivalric nationalism, and investigations of the use of the Grail in poetry and literature by authors such as Tennyson, T.S. Eliot, and Walker Percy"--Barnes & Noble.
The theme of the body-and-soul relationship in medieval texts and in modern reworkings of medieval matter is explored in the articles here, specifically the representation of the body in romance; the relevance of bawdy tales to the cultural experience of authors and readers in the middle ages; the function of despair, or melancholy, in medieval and Renaissance literature; and the political significance of late medieval representations of `bodies' in the chroniclers' accounts of the Rising and in Gower's poems. Two articles are devoted to modern retellings of medieval themes: John Foxe's 'Acts and Monuments', seen in relation to the traditional 'acta martyrum', and the medieval revival in Tory Britain exemplified in Douglas Oliver's 'The Infant and the Pearl'. Contributors: PAMELA JOSEPH BENSON, NIGEL S. THOMPSON, JON WHITMAN, JEROME MANDEL, BARBARA NOLAN, YASUNARI TAKADA, YVETTE MARCHAND, ROBERT F. YEAGER, JOERG O. FICHTE, JOHN KERRIGAN
From the Arthurian epic poem Parzival to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the Assassin's Creed video game series, the Knights Templar have captivated artists and audiences alike for centuries. In modern times, the Templars have featured in many narrative contexts, evolving in a range of contrasting story roles: the grail guardian, the heroic knight, the villainous knight, and the keeper of conspiracies. This study explores why these gone but not forgotten warrior monks remain prominent in popular culture; how history influenced the myth; and how the myth has influenced literature, film and video games.