Medieval Mythography, Volume 3

Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8130-6012-5
Verlag: University Press of Florida

Buch, Englisch, 608 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 1111 g

With this volume, Jane Chance concludes her monumental study of the history of mythography in medieval literature. Her focus here is the advent of hybrid mythography, the transformation of mythological commentary by blending the scholarly with the courtly and the personal.

Chance’s in-depth examination of works by the major writers of the period—including Dante, Boccaccio, and Christine de Pizan— demonstrates how they essentially co-opted a thousand-year tradition. Their intricate narratives of identity mixed commentary with poetry; reinterpreted classical gods and heroes to suit personal agendas; and gave rise to innovative techniques such as “inglossation,” the use of a mythological figure to comment on the protagonist within an autobiographical allegory. In this manner, through allegorical authorial projection of the self, the poets explored a subjective world and manifested a burgeoning humanism that would eventually come to full fruition in the Renaissance.

No other work examines the mythographic interrelationships between these poets and their unique and personal approaches to mythological commentary.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chance, Jane

Über Autor(innen)

Jane Chance, Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Rice University, USA and Honorary Doctor of Letters, has published twenty-two books, including Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power and The Mythographic Chaucer: The Fabulation of Sexual Politics.