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The Scottish Legendary
Towards a poetics of hagiographic narration
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2016
About this book
This is the first book-length study of the Scottish Legendary of the late fourteenth century. The only extant collection of saints' lives in the vernacular from medieval Scotland, the work scrutinises the dynamics of hagiographic narration, its implicit assumptions about literariness, and the functions of telling the lives of the saints.
The fifty saints' legends are remarkable for their narrative art: the enjoyment of reading the legends is heightened, while didactic and edifying content is toned down. Focusing on the role of the narrator, the depiction of the saintly characters, their interiority, as well as temporal and spatial parameters, it is demonstrated that the Scottish poet has adapted the traditional material to the needs of an audience versed in reading romance and other secular genres. This study scrutinises the implications of the Scottish poet's narrative strategies with respect to the Scottishness of the Legendary and its overall place in the hagiographic landscape of late medieval Britain.
The fifty saints' legends are remarkable for their narrative art: the enjoyment of reading the legends is heightened, while didactic and edifying content is toned down. Focusing on the role of the narrator, the depiction of the saintly characters, their interiority, as well as temporal and spatial parameters, it is demonstrated that the Scottish poet has adapted the traditional material to the needs of an audience versed in reading romance and other secular genres. This study scrutinises the implications of the Scottish poet's narrative strategies with respect to the Scottishness of the Legendary and its overall place in the hagiographic landscape of late medieval Britain.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Eva von Contzen
Anke Bernau is lecturer in Medieval Literature and Culture at the University of Manchester
Reviews
‘This is an intensely exciting book due to the new methodologies it offers for understanding these texts, and the new possibilities it suggests within the study of medieval Scottish literature.’
Claire Harrill, University of Birmingham, Medievalia et Humanistica, New Series, Number 43
Claire Harrill, University of Birmingham, Medievalia et Humanistica, New Series, Number 43
Topics
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Front matter
i -
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Dedication
v -
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Contents
vii -
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List of illustrations
viii -
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Acknowledgements
ix -
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List of abbreviations
x -
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Introduction
1 -
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1 Towards a narrative poetics of medieval saints’ lives
31 -
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2 Teacher and poet
53 -
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3 Words and deeds
87 -
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4 Putting the saint in perspective
125 -
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5 Saintly interiority
150 -
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6 The past, a foreign country
180 -
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Conclusion
208 -
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Appendix
219 -
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Bibliography
239 -
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Index
263
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
November 23, 2023
eBook ISBN:
9781526100269
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781526100269
Audience(s) for this book
Intended for use in teaching English as a second language
