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The Danger of Romance
Truth, Fantasy, and Arthurian Fictions
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Karen Sullivan
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2018
About this book
The curious paradox of romance is that, throughout its history, this genre has been dismissed as trivial and unintellectual, yet people have never ceased to flock to it with enthusiasm and even fervor. In contemporary contexts, we devour popular romance and fantasy novels like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones, reference them in conversations, and create online communities to expound, passionately and intelligently, upon their characters and worlds. But romance is “unrealistic,” critics say, doing readers a disservice by not accurately representing human experiences. It is considered by some to be a distraction from real literature, a distraction from real life, and little more.
Yet is it possible that romance is expressing a truth—and a truth unrecognized by realist genres? The Arthurian literature of the Middle Ages, Karen Sullivan argues, consistently ventriloquizes in its pages the criticisms that were being made of romance at the time, and implicitly defends itself against those criticisms. The Danger of Romance shows that the conviction that ordinary reality is the only reality is itself an assumption, and one that can blind those who hold it to the extraordinary phenomena that exist around them. It demonstrates that that which is rare, ephemeral, and inexplicable is no less real than that which is commonplace, long-lasting, and easily accounted for. If romance continues to appeal to audiences today, whether in its Arthurian prototype or in its more recent incarnations, it is because it confirms the perception—or even the hope—of a beauty and truth in the world that realist genres deny.
Yet is it possible that romance is expressing a truth—and a truth unrecognized by realist genres? The Arthurian literature of the Middle Ages, Karen Sullivan argues, consistently ventriloquizes in its pages the criticisms that were being made of romance at the time, and implicitly defends itself against those criticisms. The Danger of Romance shows that the conviction that ordinary reality is the only reality is itself an assumption, and one that can blind those who hold it to the extraordinary phenomena that exist around them. It demonstrates that that which is rare, ephemeral, and inexplicable is no less real than that which is commonplace, long-lasting, and easily accounted for. If romance continues to appeal to audiences today, whether in its Arthurian prototype or in its more recent incarnations, it is because it confirms the perception—or even the hope—of a beauty and truth in the world that realist genres deny.
Author / Editor information
Karen Sullivan is the Irma Brandeis Professor of Romance Culture and Literature at Bard College. She is the author of three other books, most recently, The Inner Lives of Medieval Inquisitors.
Reviews
“The Danger of Romance is written with beautiful clarity and the elegant erudition one associates with Sullivan’s work. I do not know of any other book that moves among so many medieval writers to detail theological and moral understandings of the nature of the marvelous and the miraculous, the relationship between truth and imagination, and the value of exemplarity. Sullivan’s book shows that such questions are part of medieval literary history and that they can articulate broad understandings of literary culture and of what literature does and can do. The range of this book is truly impressive.”
— Peggy McCracken, University of Michigan“Sullivan shifts the terms of the debate in arguing that fiction is not about the suspension of disbelief but an exercise of belief. In her masterful and airtight defense of literature, the Middle Ages come off as the true Age of the Enlightenment compared to our own Age of the Internet.”
— Zrinka Stahuljak, University of California, Los Angeles“Zeroing in with philosophical precision on the bond between truth and trust, Sullivan offers a spirited defense of romance against ‘realists’ who spurn its vain fictions and ‘romantics’ who may love it too blindly. The Danger of Romance achieves its finest insights by following Merlin, Arthur, Lancelot, and the Grail to reveal how Arthurian romance contains its own critique even as it exuberantly represents the power of imagination.”
— Matilda Bruckner, Boston College“A stimulating study of medieval French Arthurian romance. . . . Convincingly rebuts critical responses to romance as a dangerous form of self-delusion distracting readers from the truths of the world.”
— Times Higher Education“Thanks to her careful exploration of these sources, Sullivan is convincing in arguing that reality can exist in the realm of the imagination as well as in experience. . . . Highly recommended.”
— CHOICE“Karen Sullivan vividly shows why the stories of King Arthur and Camelot have lost none of their old power. . . . One of the top books of 2018.”
— American Interest"An in-depth survey of Arthurian romance’s relation to truth, fantasy, and historicity. Sullivan resists essentialist defenses of romance in favor of a nuanced approach to truth claims and escapism in the Arthurian canon. In shifting the focus away from historicity (while nevertheless keeping it in mind), she explores the mechanisms by which romance makes possible different forms of pleasure, narrative, and experience. . . . The Danger of Romance’s greatest strength is in interrogating how truth is framed in fantasy, and what we learn in the process of marveling, wondering, and witnessing fantasy, from Chrétien de Troyes to J. K. Rowling. . . . Its method is sure to provoke interest in romance as a genre and stimulate debate on the role of romance, from the imagined to the political, the literary to the literal."
— Modern Philology"It is clear that this book is a stimulating defense of the novel and of romance, which, according to the author, teaches us to read, but also how to live and love."
— Cahiers de civilisation médiévale (Translated from French)Topics
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
March 7, 2018
eBook ISBN:
9780226540436
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
336
eBook ISBN:
9780226540436
Keywords for this book
romance; arthurian legend; folklore; fantasy; truth; french literature; king arthur; lancelot; guinevere; love; reality; merlin; holy grail; eucharist; avalon; camelot; knights; sword in the stone; adultery; morality; quest; pilgrimage; penance; harry potter; chronicles of narnia; imagination; childrens fiction; sacred; secular; semblance; significance; nonfiction; lovers
Audience(s) for this book
Professional and scholarly;
