Marco Polo's Le devisement du monde : narrative voice, language and diversity / Simon Gaunt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gaunt, Simon, author.

Contributor:

Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

Series:

Gallica (Woodbridge (Suffolk, England)) ; v. 31.

Gallica ; volume 31

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Polo, Marco, 1254-1323? Travels of Marco Polo.

Polo, Marco.

Travelers' writings, Italian--History and criticism.

Travelers' writings, Italian.

Italian literature--To 1400--History and criticism.

Italian literature.

Physical Description:

199 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : D.S. Brewer, 2013.

Summary:

Le Devisement du Monde (1298), better though inaccurately known in English as Marco Polo's Travels, is one of only a handful of medieval texts that remain iconic today for European cultural history, while Marco Polo is one of only a very few medieval writers who still enjoys instant name-recognition. Yet there is little awareness of the Devisement's complex history and development. This book examines the text from a fresh, literary perspective, drawing upon a range of different disciplines and approaches: philology, manuscript studies, narratology, cultural history, post-colonial studies and theory. It contains comparative readings of multiple versions of the text in French, Italian and Latin. Gaunt argues that rather than offering a Eurocentric vision of the world grounded in a sense of the absolute alterity of the non-Christian world as is often asserted, the Devisement expounds a sense of the relative nature of difference, crucially positioning Marco Polo uncannily between two worlds (East and West), just as he is positioned awkwardly between two languages, French and Italian, and (in modem reception at least) awkwardly between two literary histories. He also calls into question traditional accounts of the use of French outside France in the Middle Ages and offers a reassessment of Marco Polo's position in the evolution of European travel writing. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction : Le devisement du monde : textual tradition and genre

Narrative voice and style : 'ego Marcus Paulo'

Language and translation : 'in lingua Galica dicitur'

Knowledge, marvels and other religions : 'oculis propriis videt'

Diversity and alterity : 'diversarum regionum mundanas diversitates'

Conclusion : 'et ipse non notavit nisi pauca aliqua, que adhuc in mente retinebat.'

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [183]-193) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.

ISBN:

1843843528

OCLC:

851154479

Publisher Number:

99955325527