Overview

Examining the emergence of the versified love story as a genre of New Persian literature in the early eleventh century, Love at a Crux situates this literary movement within the broader global history of romance. Love at a Crux presents the emergence of versified love stories in the New Persian language as a crucial event in the history of romance. Using the tale of Vis & Ramin (w. 1054) as its focal point, the book explores how Persian court poets in the eleventh century reconfigured 'myths' and 'fables' from the distant past in ways that transformed the love story from a form of evening entertainment to a method of ethical, political, and affective self-inquiry. This transformation both anticipates and helps to explain the efflorescence of romance in many medieval cultures across the western flank of Afro-Eurasia. Bringing together traditions that are often sundered by modern disciplinary boundaries, Love at a Crux unearths the interconnections between New Persian and comparable traditions in ancient and medieval Greek, Arabic, Georgian, Old French, and Middle High German, offering scholars in classics, medieval studies, Middle Eastern literatures, and premodern world literature a case study in literary history as connected history.

Full Product Details

Author:   Cameron Cross
Publisher:   University of Toronto Press
Imprint:   University of Toronto Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.90cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 24.90cm
Weight:   0.670kg
ISBN:  

9781487547271

ISBN 10:   1487547277
Pages:   390
Publication Date:   05 December 2023
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Table of Contents

Reader’s Notes Prologue: In Which Love Has Many a Tale A Heterogeneous Text Re-congnizing Romance The Medieval Globe Mythos and Ethos Love at a Crux 1. Phantasy: The Rise of Romance An Act of Creation Legends and Legerdemain Heroic Lives and Amorous Tales By Way of Symbol Why Read Romance? Like Kingly Pearls 2. Ethics: An Affair of Conscience The Ethos of Romantic Love Conflicting Signals and False Starts Vis Unveiled From Media to Marv: A Tale of Three Seductions A New Covenant 3. Authority: The Prisoner of His Skin “All Kings Were His Slaves” Beholding Mehr The Sacred Bond The Iron Band Un/knowing the Truth Smashing the Mirror “The World is a Dream”  4. Affect: The Limits of Lyric Lyrics, Episodes, and Adventure-Time Episode 1 Mode-Switching Episode 2 Lyrical Reality Episode 3The Mirror of the Self Episode 4 A Crisis of Authority Breakdown and Breakup The Final Word 5. History: The Death of Romantic Love  Transcribing the Soul Love-Death (Liebestod)  False Death (Scheintod) Endings and Beginnings Epilogue Acknowledgments Appendices Appendix A: A Summary of Vis & Rāmin Exordium From Media to Marv A King’s Collapse Vis and Rāmin Separate Death and Deliverance Appendix B: Rāmin’s Songs Rāmin Falls in Love Rāmin Woos Vis Episode 1: The Ordeal Episode 2: The Bed-Trick Episode 3: The Devil’s Grotto Episode 4: The Garden The Breakup The Coup Appendix C: Concordance Bibliography Index

Reviews

"""Love at a Crux places the eleventh-century Persian verse narrative Vis & Rāmin firmly within the context of transnational romance and also makes a brilliantly argued case for its paramount importance as Persian literature's primary major instance of the genre. This is a well-argued and very rewarding book that should be read by all scholars of both the romance genre and medieval Persian literature."" - Dick Davis, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Ohio State University ""At once a focused study of a single literary work - the eleventh-century Persian romance Vis & Rāmin - and an expansive account of literary history seen from a specific vantage point, Cameron Cross's work invites us to rethink our understanding of the 'Global Middle Ages.' His analysis of Abrahamic and Hellenic traditions allows us to see how confessional identities and neoplatonic philosophical commitments were mediated through the genre of romance at the vibrant cultural crossroads that was medieval Persia."" - Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University ""Highly original, theoretically alert, and brilliantly written, Love at a Crux provides penetrating insights into one of the most captivating works of classical Persian literature. With great mastery, Cross explores Vis & Rāmin within broader and interconnected literary, theological, and philosophical developments in the Late Antique, medieval Islamicate, and European worlds."" - Julia Rubanovich, Senior Lecturer in Persian Language and Literature and Head of the Iranian Studies Program, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ""This is an excellent book that addresses not only specialists in Persian literature but also medievalists, Byzantinists, as well as comparatists. Cross has taken a fresh approach to Vis & Rāmin, that is both ingenious and compelling, as it attempts to make sense of the medieval narrative's disjointedness. Vis & Rāmin has been removed from a conventional - vertical and national - history of Persian literature and has been placed horizontally into the broader world of ancient and medieval romance."" - Panagiotis Agapitos, Professor of Byzantine Literature, University of Mainz"

Author Information

Cameron Cross is an assistant professor of Iranian studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

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