Secret in Medieval Literature

Alternative Worlds in the Middle Ages

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

AvAlbrecht Classen

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The Secret in Medieval Literature: Alternative Worlds in the Middle Ages explores the many strange phenomena, both in the Middle Ages and today, that do not find any good rational explanations. Those do not pertain to magic or to religion in the traditional sense of the word; they are secrets of an epistemological kind and tend to defy human rationality, without being marginal or irrelevant. At first sight, we might believe that we face elements from fairy tales, but the medieval cases discussed here go far beyond such a simplistic approach to the mysterious dimension of secrets. In fact, as this book argues, medieval poets commonly engaged with alternative forces and described their workings within the human context (both in the Latin West and in the East), without being able to come to terms with them critically. Those mysteries appear both in heroic epics and courtly romances, among other genres, and they figure more frequently than we might have assumed. On the one hand, we could conceive of those secrets as the product of literary liberties and imagination; on the other, those secrets prove to be rather serious agents intervening in the lives of the fictional protagonists. By the same token, our modern world is not all rationality and material conditions either. The study of secrets in the Middle Ages thus opens the pathway toward a new epistemology both for the people in the pre-modern age and us today.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2022-10-21
Mått160 x 239 x 24 mm
Vikt558 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieStudies in Medieval Literature
Antal sidor294
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9781666917864

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Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur

Introduction: The Secret in the Literary Discourse: The Challenges of Medieval Literature for Post-Modern ReadersChapter One: Marie de France: The Lais—the Mysterious Black Ship, and Other Secrets in the World of LoveChapter Two: Nordic Sagas and the Mabinogi: Secrets in Medieval Icelandic and Welsh Literature or: The Appearance of the Otherworld in the Human ContextChapter Three: Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival—the Secret of the Grail at Munsalvæsche, and the Secret Inscription on the Dog Leash in TiturelChapter Four: Heldris de Cornuälle’s Roman de Silence: The Secret of Gender Identity and the Secret of the Self: Nature versus Nurture—A Debate Raging Already in the Thirteenth CenturyChapter Five: Secrets and Mysteries in the World of Heinrich von dem Türlin’s Crône: The Transformation of the Arthurian and the Grail Romance Chapter Six: Secrets and the Secret World in Huon de Bordeaux Foreign and Yet Not Alien: The Good King AuberonChapter Seven: Secrets of the Mystical World: Mysticism and t

Classen explores the secret as a compelling narrative device in medieval texts. His focus is not on magical and religious elements per se, but rather on the ways in which medieval writers grappled with unknowable, or secret, objects and events. Classen discusses not only characters who wield secret knowledge and powers, but also those affected by, but not privy to, those secrets. The comprehensive introduction defines the significance of secrecy throughout literary studies, and the chapters that follow are devoted to an array of writers and genres. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.