UID:
almahu_9947413690302882
Format:
1 online resource (x, 160 pages) :
,
digital, PDF file(s).
ISBN:
9781846151316 (ebook)
Content:
The idea of the Orient is a major motif in Chaucer and medieval romance, and this new study reveals much about its use and significance, setting the literature in its historical context and thereby offering fresh new readings of a number of texts. The author begins by looking at Chaucer's and Gower's treatment of the legend of Constance, as told by the Man of Law, demonstrating that Chaucer's addition of a pattern of mercantile details highlights the commercial context of the eastern Mediterranean in which the heroine is placed; she goes on to show how Chaucer's portraits of Cleopatra and Dido from the 'Legend of Good Women', read against parallel texts, especially in Boccaccio, reveal them to be loci of medieval orientalism. She then examines Chaucer's inventive handling of details taken from Eastern sources and analogues in the 'Squire's Tale', showing how he shapes them into the western form of interlace. The author concludes by looking at two romances, 'Floris and Blauncheflur' and 'Le Bone Florence of Rome'; she argues that elements in Floris of sibling incest are legitimised into a quest for the beloved, and demonstrates that Le Bone Florence be related to analogous oriental tales about heroic women who remain steadfast in virtue against persecution and adversity. Professor CAROL F. HEFFERNAN teaches in the Department of English, Rutgers University.
Note:
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).
,
Introduction: Romance and the Orient -- Mercantilism and faith in the Eastern Mediterranean: Chaucer's Man of Law's tale, Boccaccio's Decameron 5, 2, and Gower's Tale of Constance -- Two Oriental queens from Chaucer's Legend of Good Women: Cleopatra and Dido -- Chaucer's Squire's Tale: content and structure -- A question of incest, the double, and the theme of East and West: The middle English romance of Floris and Blauncheflur -- Le Bone Florence of Rome and the East.
Additional Edition:
Print version: ISBN 9780859917957
Language:
English
Subjects:
English Studies
URL:
http://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781846151316/type/BOOK
URL:
Volltext
(lizenzpflichtig)
