Building the Text: Architecture as Metaphor in Late Medieval and Early Modern France

by David Cowling

Overview

Descriptions of imaginary buildings abound in late medieval and early modern texts in France. This book examines the reasons for their popularity and analyzes the way in which metaphors of the building were used by writers as a tools of persuasion. One such writer was Jean Lemaire (c.1473-after 1515) who used architectural metaphor both to praise his patrons and to advertise his own talents, while drawing on and transforming a tradition of writing popularized by his rhétoriqueur predecessors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198159599
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/23/1998
Series:	Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	1780L (what's this?)

About the Author

University of Exeter

Table of Contents

List of IllustrationsIntroduction1. ‘Il n'y a plus nobles logiz que sont cons': The Body as a Building (I)2. ‘Ung lieu de si grand seureté': The Body as a Building (II)3. ‘Ferme estoit sans povoir trebucher': The State as a Building4. ‘Colloquerons ceans le sien ymage': Architectural Metaphors for the Mind and Memory5. ‘Ce sont les huis et les cleres fenestres ...': The Text as a Building6. ‘Ung temple y a, plus beau ne vit oncq nulz': Fictions of the Building in Jean Lemaire de BelgesConclusionAppendix: A Checklist of Architectural Allegories of the Period 1460-1540BibliographyIndex