The Evolution of Arthurian Romance: The Verse Tradition from Chrétien to Froissart

by Beate Schmolke-Hasselmann, Margaret Middleton, Roger Middleton

Overview

Beate Schmolke-Hasselmann's study of Arthurian verse romance was first published in German in 1985, but her radical argument that we need urgently to redraw the lines on the literary and linguistic map of medieval Britain and France is only now being made available in English. Updated with a new foreword and a supplementary bibliography, this study serves as a contribution to both reception history, examining the medieval response to Chrétien's poetry, and genre history, suveying the evolution of Arthurian verse romance in French over two centuries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521411530
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/28/1998
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature , #35
Pages:	374
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.98(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. The Response to Chrétien: Tradition and Innovation in Arthurian Romance: 1. The stigma of decadence; 2. Consolidation of the form; 3. Changes in the relationship between ideals and reality; 4. Knight or lover: Gawain as a paragon divided; 5. Old matiere, new sens: innovation in thought and content; 6. Aspects of the response to Chrétien: from plagiarism to nostalgia; Part II. An Historical Survey of the Impact of the Arthurian Verse Romances: 7. The popularity of Arthurian verse romances; 8. The audience; 9. Arthurian literature in French and its significance for England; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"In English the book reads with remarkable freshness. Scholarship on the verse romances has continued in recent years, but has concentrated on the production of (very welcome) new editions and articles on fashionable aspects of individual texts; Schmolke-Hasselmann's breadth of approach remains unparalleled. Like all the best criticism, Schmolke-Hasselmann's book raises as many stimulating questions as it answers." Rosemary Morris, Albion

From the Publisher