Reading the exemplum right : fixing the meaning of El Conde Lucanor / by Jonathan Burgoyne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burgoyne, Jonathan, 1967-

Series:

North Carolina studies in the Romance languages and literatures ; no. 289.

North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures ; no. 289

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Juan Manuel, Infante of Castile, 1282-1347. Conde Lucanor.

Juan Manuel.

Physical Description:

236 pages : facsimiles ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : U.N.C. Dept. of Romance Languages, 2007.

Summary:

This study situates Juan Manuel at the apex of the European literary tradition of the exemplum, demonstrating the coercive power and authority of the illustrative tale. Following the medieval modes of reading and writing that structure Juan Manuel's text, Burgoyne uncovers a rhetorical lesson woven into the entire five-part Conde Lucanor that lays bare the inherent ambivalence of the exemplum as a narrative sign. Burgoyne then traces the earliest response to Juan Manuel's work as it can be uncovered in the layout, variance, interlineations, and marginalia found in the various late medieval and early modern manuscript witnesses of El Conde Lucanor. The study concludes by testing the hypothesis that a work's earliest audience can establish a tradition of reading that effectively prevents alternative interpretations and fixes an orthodox meaning of the text for future generations.

Contents:

Ethical ambiguity in El Conde Lucanor

Juan Manuel's exemplary art

The exemplum in action

The ideological reading of El Conde Lucanor

The late medieval and early modern audiences of El Conde Lucanor

The modern critical reception of El Conde Lucanor.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-230) and index.

ISBN:

0807892939

9780807892930

OCLC:

141188002