Overview

Widely heard and read throughout the middle ages, romance literature has persisted for centuries and has lately re-emerged in the form of speculative fiction, inviting readers to step out of the actual world and experience the intriguing pleasure of possibility. Medieval Romance is the first study to focus on the deep philosophical underpinnings of the genre's fictional worlds. James F. Knapp and Peggy A. Knapp uniquely utilize Leibniz's ""possible worlds"" theory, Kant's aesthetic reflections, and Gadamer's writings on the apprehension of language over time, to bring the romance genre into critical dialogue with fundamental questions of philosophical aesthetics, modal logic, and the hermeneutics of literary transmission. The authors' compelling and illuminating analysis of six instances of medieval secular writing, including that of Marie de France, the Gawain-poet, and Chaucer demonstrates how the extravagantly imagined worlds of romance invite reflection about the nature of the real. These stories, which have delighted readers for hundreds of years, do so because the impossible fictions of one era prefigure desired realities for later generations.

Full Product Details

Author:   James Knapp ,  Peggy Knapp
Publisher:   University of Toronto Press
Imprint:   University of Toronto Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.90cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.560kg
ISBN:  

9781487501914

ISBN 10:   1487501919
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   09 January 2018
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

Preface Introduction 1. The Speculative Fiction of Marie de France 2. Perception and Possible Worlds in Sir Orfeo 3. Capturing Beauty: Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde 4. Melusine’s Aventure among the Humans 5. Romance by Other Means: The Canterbury Tales 6. The Immense Subtlety of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight References Index

Reviews

James and Peggy Knapp's latest joint scholarly endeavor, Medieval Romance: The Aesthetics of Possibility, is a significant and original contribution to the study of medieval romance, for it brings forth and examines the philosophical underpinnings of a number of well-known and extensively studied romances. -- Kimberly K. Bell, Sam Houston State University * Modern Philology, vol 117, no 1 *

Author Information

James F. Knapp is a professor in the Department of English and the Senior Associate Dean of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Peggy A. Knapp is a professor in the Department of English at Carnegie Mellon University.

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