Knowing poetry : verse in medieval France from The rose to the Rhetoriqueurs / Adrian Armstrong & Sarah Kay ; with the participation of Rebecca Dixon ... [et al.].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Armstrong, Adrian.

Contributor:

Kay, Sarah.

Dixon, Rebecca.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

French poetry--To 1500--History and criticism.

French poetry.

Knowledge, Theory of, in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (261 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the later Middle Ages, many writers claimed that prose is superior to verse as a vehicle of knowledge because it presents the truth in an unvarnished form, without the distortions of meter and rhyme. Beginning in the thirteenth century, works of verse narrative from the early Middle Ages were recast in prose, as if prose had become the literary norm. Instead of dying out, however, verse took on new vitality. In France verse texts were produced, in both French and Occitan, with the explicit intention of transmitting encyclopedic, political, philosophical, moral, historical, and other forms of knowledge.In Knowing Poetry, Adrian Armstrong and Sarah Kay explore why and how verse continued to be used to transmit and shape knowledge in France. They cover the period between Jean de Meun's Roman de la rose (c. 1270) and the major work of Jean Bouchet, the last of the grands rhétoriqueurs (c. 1530). The authors find that the advent of prose led to a new relationship between poetry and knowledge in which poetry serves as a medium for serious reflection and self-reflection on subjectivity, embodiment, and time. They propose that three major works-the Roman de la rose, the Ovide moralisé, and Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy-form a single influential matrix linking poetry and intellectual inquiry, metaphysical insights, and eroticized knowledge. The trio of thought-world-contingency, poetically represented by Philosophy, Nature, and Fortune, grounds poetic exploration of reality, poetry, and community.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I. Situating Knowledge

Chapter 1. Persistent Presence: Verse after Prose

Chapter 2. Poetry and History

Chapter 3. Poetry and Thought

Part II. Transmitting and Shaping Knowledge

Chapter 4. Knowing the World in Verse Encyclopedias and Encyclopedic Verse

Chapter 5. Knowledge and the Practice of Poetry

Chapter 6. Textual Communities: Poetry and the Social Construction of Knowledge

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780801461064

0801461065

9780801460586

0801460581

OCLC:

742515533