Telling tales : medieval narratives and the folk tradition / edited by Francesca Canadé Sautman, Diana Conchado, and Giuseppe Carlo Di Scipio.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Canadé Sautman, Francesca.

Conchado, Diana, 1961-

Di Scipio, Giuseppe C., 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tales, Medieval.

Civilization, Medieval.

Folklore--Europe.

Physical Description:

ix, 320 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Summary:

Telling Tales explores the interlocking relationships among written medieval texts, the oral tradition, and the influence of folklore, and examines folklore and culture within literary and historical contexts. The diverse essays in this collection highlight the mutual shadowing of literature and oral narrative and how they relate to other areas of cultural production and performance, including systems of learning, political ideologies, gender formation and conflicts, folk religion, ethnic tensions, and legal practices. Folklore from a variety of literary and folk traditions including Arabic, Celtic, French, Jewish, Christian, Spanish, and Scandinavian are analyzed using multiple theoretical approaches such as psychoanalysis, feminist theory, new historicism, and semiotics. The relationship, and often the interchangeability, of high culture (such as canonical writings) and popular/folk culture (such as amulets or storytelling) is also explored. A more contemporary essay on the impact of the printing press on folkloric traditions concludes this collection that crosses disciplines, genres, and nationalities, penned by prominent European and American folklore scholars. The result is a work that is at once diversified, contrasted, and provocative. Telling Tales is an exemplary addition to the world of medieval studies and literature.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Texts and Shadows: Traces, Narratives, and Folklore / The Editors 1

2. Problems in Contextualizing Oral Circulation of Early Medieval Saints' Legends / John McNamara 21

3. The Order of Monsters: Monster Lore and Medieval Narrative Traditions / Jeffrey Jerome Cohen 37

4. Myth and Text in the Middle Ages: Folklore as Literary "Source" / Philippe Walter 59

5. Ambiguity and Appropriation: The Story of Judith in Medieval Narrative and Iconographic Traditions / Leslie Abend Callahan 79

6. Infernal Visions and Border Conflicts: Two Tales from the Fifteenth-Century Recull de eximplis e miracles / Jacques Berlioz 101

7. Ambiguity in the Battle of Porr and Hrungnir / J. Michael Stitt 121

8. Sanguine Inscriptions: Mythic and Literary Aspects of a Motif in Chretien de Troyes's Conte du Graal / Madeleine Jeay 137

9. Framed (for) Murder: The Corpse Killed Five Times in the Thousand Nights and a Night / Bonnie D. Irwin 155

10. Saints, Legends, and Charms / Edina Bozoky 173

11. Saint Paul and Popular Traditions / Giuseppe Carlo Di Scipio 189

12. The Middle-Aged Life of Adamnan / Joseph Falaky Nagy 209

Part IV Historical Contexts

13. A Troubled History: Folklore and Competing Texts in Baudouin de Sebourc, a Fourteenth-Century Chanson de Geste / Francesca Canade Sautman 231

14. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Myth in Its Time / Carl Lindahl 249

15. From "Little Red Riding Hood" to the "Beast of Gevaudan": The Tale in the Long Term Continuum / Catherine Velay-Vallantin 269.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-307) and index.

ISBN:

0312211317

OCLC:

37864303