The medieval risk-reward society : courts, adventure, and love in the European Middle Ages / Will Hasty.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hasty, Will, author.

Series:

Interventions: new studies in medieval culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature, Medieval--History and criticism.

Literature, Medieval.

Love in literature.

Courtly love--History.

Courtly love.

Courts and courtiers.

Aristocracy (Social class).

History.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 260 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2016]

Summary:

The Medieval Risk-Reward Society offers a study of adventure and love in the European Middle Ages focused on the poetry of authors such as Marie de France, Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Gottfried von Strassburg-showing how a society based on sacrifice becomes one of wagers and investments. Will Hasty's sociological approach to medieval courtly literature, informed by the analytic tools of game theory, reveals the blossoming of a world-view in which outcomes are uncertain, such that the very self (of a character or an authorial persona) is contingent on success or failure in possessing the things it desires- and upon which its social identity and personal happiness depend. Drawing on a diverse selection of contrasting canonical works ranging from the Iliad to the biblical book of Joshua to High Medieval German political texts to the writings of Leibniz and Mark Twain, Hasty enables an appreciation of the distinctive contributions made in antiquity and the Middle Ages to the medieval emergence of a European society based on risks and rewards. The Medieval Risk-Reward Society: Courts, Adventure, and Love in the European Middle Ages takes a descriptive approach to the competitions in religion, politics, and poetry that are constitutive of medieval culture. Culture is considered always to be happening, and to be happening on the cultural cutting edge as competitions for rewards involving the element of chance. This study finds adventure and love-the principal concerns of medieval European romance poetry-to be cultural game changers, and thereby endeavors to make a humanist contribution to the development of a cultural game theory. Book jacket.

Contents:

The cultural action ; Toward a cultural game theory ; The new medieval move ; A race of four cities: Troy, Jericho, Rome, and Jerusalem

The medieval self as bankroll ; The city of God: otherness as a global parameter of action ; The city of God: sameness as a global parameter of action loss, reiteration, growth ; The new medieval move exemplified

Rules of the house ; Courtly representation as aristocratic competition ; Investitures: a diachronic view of the political action

The poetic action ; Wars, tournaments, verses: the place of poetry at court ; Benchmarks of performance ; The vernacular as poetic resource ; Stars in competition

Adventure as a cultural wager ; Dynamics of adventure ; Highlights from Chretien de Troyes's Erec et Enide ; Highlights from Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival

Love as a cultural wager ; Dynamics of love ; Highlights from Marie de France's Lanval ; Highlights from Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan

The modern self in play ; The global as individual ; Reformation moves ; Enlightenment moves ; A gilded-age Connecticut Yankee adventures for high stakes ; Emancipation, totalitarianism, and the (post)modern action.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780814213032

0814213030

OCLC:

926823051

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description