Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Online publication date:
September 2012
Print publication year:
2011
Online ISBN:
9781846157820

Book description

'Partonopeus de Blois' is one of the most important works of twelfth-century French fiction; it shaped the development of romance as a genre, gave rise to adaptations in several other medieval languages and even an opera (Massanet's 'Esclarmonde'). However, partly because of its complicated transmission history, and partly due to the fact that it has been overshadowed by the works of Chrétien de Troyes, it has been unjustly neglected. This first full-length study of the romance brings together literary, historical and manuscript studies to explore its making as it evolved through seven medieval `editions', the earliest of which probably predated most of Chrétien's romances. The book's thematic analyses show how the 'Partonopeus' poet applied established techniques of rewriting to a wide range of classical, vernacular and Celtic sources, combining this literary fusion with political subtexts to create a new and influential model of romance composition. Detailed studies of the 'Continuation' reveal more ambitious experimentation by the original author, as well as the activities of a series of `editors' who continued to modify the text for over a century. A final discussion of patronage proposes a new reading of the poem's distinct narratorial interventions on women and love, and suggests a link between 'Partonopeus' and a disturbing episode in the history of Blois. Penny Eley is Professor of Medieval French at the University of Sheffield.

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
×

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.