Showing papers in "Neophilologus in 2011"
TL;DR: The Virgin Mary and Eve constitute two opposite sexual poles in the way Christian discourse has approached women since the time of the church fathers as discussed by the authors, and the Madonna-Eve dichotomy has given a conceptual basis to what is known in psychology as the Madonnawhore Dichotomy: the tendency to categorize women in terms of two polar opposites.
Abstract: The Virgin Mary and Eve constitute two opposite sexual poles in the way Christian discourse has approached women since the time of the church fathers. This stems from a predicament faced by the human male throughout hominid evolution, namely, paternal uncertainty. Because the male is potentially always at risk of unwittingly raising the offspring of another male, two (often complementary) male sexual strategies have evolved to counter this genetic threat: mate guarding and promiscuity. The Virgin Mary is the mythological expression of the mate guarding strategy. Mary is an eternal virgin, symbolically allaying all fear of paternal uncertainty. Mary makes it possible for the male psyche to have its reproductive cake and eat it too: she gives birth (so reproduction takes place) and yet requires no mate guarding effort or jealousy. Eve, the inventor of female sexuality, is repeatedly viewed by the church fathers, e.g., Augustine and Origen, as Mary’s opposite. Thus, Eve becomes the embodiment of the whore: both attractive in the context of the promiscuity strategy and repulsive in terms of paternal uncertainty: “Death by Eve, life by Mary” (St. Jerome). The Mary-Eve dichotomy has given a conceptual basis to what is known in psychology as the Madonna-Whore Dichotomy: the tendency to categorize women in terms of two polar opposites. This paper will explore the way mythology reflects biology, i.e., human psychological traits that have evolved over millennia.
14 citations
TL;DR: This article investigated the historical relationship between Christian affirmation and expectation of divine aid and the common Arabic Islamic expression inshallah (“if/when Allah wills”) and found that the latter may well have been an Islamic adoption of a Latin and/or Greek phrase encountered in the era of the Crusades.
Abstract: We seek here to investigate and clarify the origins of the popular pietistic expression “God willing”. We discuss the historical relationship between that Christian affirmation and expectation of divine aid and the common Arabic Islamic expression inshallah (“if/when Allah wills”). Philological and historical investigation indicates that “God willing” can be traced back through Christian triumphal affirmations to classical Latin and koine (New Testament) Greek commonplace expressions. The ultimate origin may well be a classical Greek Stoic expression which made its way into common parlance. We propose that the philological, semantic, and historical evidence suggests that Arabic inshallah may well have been an Islamic adoption of a Latin and/or Greek phrase encountered in the era of the Crusades.
6 citations
TL;DR: The authors discusses examples of pronominal change from English and Dutch, in which new plural forms are formed which are, historically, compounds of a traditional pronoun and an element marking plurality (e.g. you guys in English, jij lieden or jullie in Dutch).
Abstract: At least since Gillieron’s seminal work on lexical change, it is well-known that language change may be motivated by factors relating to the meaning and/or function of the elements involved. In more recent times, however, such functional accounts of language change have generally met with criticism. More specifically, there is disagreement as to whether grammar really is subject to processes of homonymy avoidance. This paper discusses examples of pronominal change from English and Dutch, in which new plural forms are formed which are, historically, compounds of a traditional pronoun and an element marking plurality (e.g. you guys in English, jij lieden or jullie in Dutch). Such innovative pronouns typically emerge in contact varieties, as reinforced pronouns or calques, and they appear to spread much more easily wherever they fill a disturbing gap in the pronominal paradigm, viz. in situations of so-called ‘horizontal homophony’. Thus, homonymy avoidance has played a crucial role in the processes by which innovative plural pronouns have diffused. This shows that pronominal change qualifies as a clear exception to the alleged rarity of functionally motivated change in grammar.
5 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the mere, the barrow, and Heorot are linked within the poem by their shared tomb-like structure and precious internal content, and the parallels between these five enclosures create striking connections between their occupants: the Grendelkin, the dragon, Hrothgar, Scyld, and ultimately Beowulf.
Abstract: Treasure spaces in Beowulf serve as structural and thematic touchstones for Beowulf’s fights with the Grendelkin and the dragon, and the locations of these fights—the mere, the barrow, and Heorot—are linked within the poem by their shared tomb-like structure and precious internal content. These three central locations are framed by two other treasure spaces in the poem—Scyld’s ship burial and Beowulf’s burial—at the beginning and end respectively, which also mirror the fight locations in structure and contents. Examined together, the parallels between these five enclosures create striking connections between their occupants: the Grendelkin, the dragon, Hrothgar, Scyld, and ultimately Beowulf. These parallels also attest thematically to the poem’s overarching discussion on the transitory nature of material wealth, creating a network of associations between the spaces and their inhabitants. This framework complicates the veneration of the human heroes and demonstrates that the accumulation of earthly goods is ultimately as useless to a hero as to a monster.
5 citations
TL;DR: Pillars of Society as discussed by the authors is the most ignored of the dozen major Ibsen prose plays, and it is rarely presented in English today, and even full-length books on the play usually either pass over it entirely or grudgingly accept it as another one in the long bumbling series of Ibsens “apprenticeship plays.”
Abstract: Pillars of Society is the most ignored of the dozen major Ibsen prose plays. Written between 1875 and 1877, it was an immediate success and made Ibsen the champion of radical artists and social reformers throughout Europe. This drama remained part of the standard Ibsen repertory through the first several decades of the twentieth century and was produced a number of times in England and America. But it is rarely presented in English today. Critically the play has fared no better. Pillars of Society was the work that got William Archer excited about Ibsen, and it was the first Ibsen play to be translated into English—by Archer—but a few years after his translation he declared that British theater audiences had grown so advanced and enlightened that “the play already seemed commonplace and old-fashioned.” Most modern critics seem to agree, by default if nothing else. To wit: no major critical essay or article on the play has been published in several decades, and even full-length books on Ibsen usually either pass over it entirely or grudgingly accept it as another one in the long bumbling series of Ibsen’s “apprenticeship plays.” Moreover, Pillars of Society is still approached as a “problem play” in the narrowest definition of that term. From this point of view, the meaning of the play indeed becomes simplistic, i.e., that bourgeois society is hypocritical and its leaders are often corrupt. Far from being an apprenticeship play, however, Pillars of Society is the mature work of a dramatic genius on which he brought all his imaginative powers to bear—the first time, in fact, that Ibsen’s manifold creative talents become totally fused in the same work.
5 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the pervasiveness of fiction in our everyday world and in written discourse, and examined the boundaries between factual and fictional works which have been challenged, particularly in the twentieth century, with works such as the nonfiction novel.
Abstract: This article explores the pervasiveness of fiction in our everyday world and in written discourse. It also examines the boundaries between factual and fictional works which have been challenged, particularly in the twentieth century, with works such as the nonfiction novel. We interpret the world in terms of fiction which, in its broadest sense, shapes our everyday world. We tell stories about events in our lives and create characters from people we know. Translating the world into discourse is also characterized by poiesis. It involves an imaginative leap and a shaping force which creates different genres. Verisimilitude, an image of reality accepted by a particular age, is necessary, not only in translating the world into a fictional work, but equally in the representation of the real in factual works. Moving from the general to the specific, the article then turns to the example of nineteenth-century historical works, both factual and fictional, focusing on the examples of Michelet’s Histoire de la revolution francaise and Balzac’s Les Chouans. But what separates a factual work from a fictional one, given the often complex interrelation of fact and fiction in discourse? Facts are themselves a construct and the product of nineteenth-century positivism. Many modern factual histories use the narrative form, into which the truth or facts of history are incorporated and which must of necessity include subjective interpretation and selectivity. Often a more obvious fictional technique is introduced into factual works. Michelet uses dramatic scenes to bring his story of history alive. Balzac introduces many historical facts into his novel Les Chouans, but these facts are used in very different ways to those found in factual histories. In addition, much of the material in the novel, such as the composite characters, is invented. However, the issue is far more complex than a simplistic distinction between factual and fictional elements in a text, and fictional works often have a purpose which is very different from that of simply imitating factual paradigms, as this article seeks to demonstrate.
5 citations
TL;DR: The troubadour love song as mentioned in this paper is based on a clash of volitions opposing the amorous desires of the lover and the resistance of his lady, mirroring the asymmetry of desire observed in real men and women.
Abstract: The findings of recent research into the psychology of sexuality, including those of evolutionary psychology, can shed light on many of the paradoxes of troubadour poetry. A central feature of human sexuality is a fundamental asymmetry of sexual desire, the fact that men want sex more than women. Men and women also have different criteria for mate selection: men prefer women whose youth and beauty signal health and fertility, whereas women prefer men who possess resources and a willingness to devote those resources to the rearing of offspring. The troubadour love song is based on a clash of volitions opposing the amorous desires of the lover and the resistance of his lady, mirroring the asymmetry of desire observed in real men and women. Women’s power to determine whether sexual relations will take place is expressed figuratively in terms of medieval social hierarchy, resulting in the “feudal metaphor.” The lady’s resistance is reinforced through external obstacles to the relationship, notably same-sex competition in the form of jealous husband and rivals. The love song represents a fictional act of courtship that seeks to overcome that resistance, appealing to an essential criterion for women’s mate selection by stressing the sincerity of the lover’s commitment to the relationship.
4 citations
TL;DR: The authors analyzed the Chanson de Roland from a cognitive psychology perspective and revealed its stylistic modernity, since scholars associate the birth of the modern novel, in the 19th century, with the generalization of such techniques.
Abstract: For a long time, students of the Chanson de Roland—G. Paris, G. Lanson, E. Faral, P. Le Gentil, G. Moignet, to name a few—have indicated that the work is highly visual, and that the reader has the impression of seeing the actions being described. In other words, the Chanson is an excellent example of the figure of speech classical rhetoricians call hypotyposis, a lively description used for creating the illusion of reality. Unfortunately the aforementioned scholars have not explained which stylistic devices produce such an effect in the Chanson (and neither have the rhetoricians who defined the trope). The goal of this article is to take stock of these various means: concrete vocabulary, neutral narration, paratactic construction, use of the present tense, montage etc., all of which contribute to rendering this composition highly visual. The analysis makes use of data produced by cognitive psychologists who study contexts in which verbal information lends itself to visualization. An unexpected consequence of the analysis of the Chanson de Roland from this perspective is the revelation of its stylistic ‘modernity’, since scholars associate the birth of the ‘modern novel’, in the 19th century, with the generalization of such techniques.
3 citations
TL;DR: The Old English poem The Ruin this article depicts the speaker's encounter with an ancient world in the form of a ruined city, and the discovery of the work of ancient builders expands the speaker’s historical horizons, forcing him to recognize that his land was once inhabited by a people whom he imagines both as other and as familiar but idealized Anglo-Saxons.
Abstract: The Old English poem depicts the speaker’s encounter with an ancient world in the form of a ruined city. His encounter is both awe-inspiring and haunting—awe-inspiring in that the city’s buildings are so finely crafted and have lasted for many generations and haunting because the excellence of its construction only underscores the absence of its builders, a people clearly technologically superior to the speaker’s own generation. The discovery of the work of ancient builders expands the speaker’s historical horizons, forcing him to recognize that his land was once inhabited by a people whom he imagines both as other—i.e., entas (giants)—and as familiar but idealized Anglo-Saxons. The speaker’s encounter with this ancient world serves also to enlarge the reader’s horizons, leading the reader to recognize that because we exist in a world inhabited by people whose works outlast them, ours is a world shaped largely by people of the past. Contrary to many twentieth-century critics, The Ruin insists not so much on the mutability of the earthly world as on the fleetingness of human beings in contrast to the lastingness of their works.
3 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on Canto 13 of the Inferno which describes the encounter between Dante and Pier delle Vigne, the suicide who has been changed into a tree.
Abstract: The author of this essay focuses on Canto 13 of the Inferno which describes the encounter between Dante and Pier delle Vigne, the suicide who has been changed into a tree. To this day critics do not agree on the classical source which has been a model for this episode. Several Ovidian tales (the tales of Daphne, the Heliads, Dryope and Erysichthon which occur in the Metamorphoses) and one passage in the Aeneid (the Polidorus episode narrated in book 3) have been considered a source of inspiration. The question can be resolved by a more profound and more systematic examination of both Canto 13 and its possible sources. Some of the most important issues studied are: the relationship between the changing character and the character that does not change; the conduct of the person transformed into a tree and the meaning of metamorphosis in the story. The author concludes that, although there are many structural resemblances between Canto 13 and the Polydorus episode, Dante clearly took a few essential elements from Ovidian myths.
3 citations
TL;DR: The authors traces the development of the opus geminatum (a twinned pair of texts, one in verse and one in prose, treating the same subject) as this grows out of late antique literary practices surrounding the conversio (paraphrase) and as it is adopted by Anglo-Saxon authors, becoming one of their most distinctive literary forms.
Abstract: This article traces the development of the opus geminatum (a twinned pair of texts, one in verse, one in prose, treating the same subject) as this grows out of late antique literary practices surrounding the conversio (paraphrase) and as it is adopted by Anglo-Saxon authors, becoming one of their most distinctive literary forms.
TL;DR: A close reading of the work suggests that, as was the case in the novel Un Roi sans divertissement, Giono used Provencal folklore, tree symbolism and Catholic traditions to develop the protagonist of L'Homme qui plantait des arbres as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Known primarily as a sort of conservationist manifesto, Jean Giono’s short story “L’Homme qui plantait des arbres” has for the most part been overlooked by literary critics. Those studies that do exist tend to focus on themes and ecological message almost to the exclusion of the story’s protagonist, Elzeard Bouffier. But a close reading of the work suggests that, as was the case in the novel Un Roi sans divertissement, Giono used Provencal folklore, tree symbolism and Catholic traditions to develop the protagonist of “L’Homme qui plantait des arbres.” Indeed, the symbolism from the aforementioned sources transforms what is on a first reading a simple, straightforward character into a multi-dimensional character. As a result, Elzeard emerges as an ecological saint of sorts that is worthy of inclusion in the Pantheon of Giono’s unique protagnonists. What some see as primarily an ecological nouvelle a these is, in fact, a metaphorically dense text worthy of consideration by literary critics.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the use of animal symbolism in the context of the novel El lugar sin limites, depicting don Alejo as a rooster, La Manuela as both a female dog and hen, and Pancho as a violent dog.
Abstract: Jose Donoso’s novel El lugar sin limites is a fictional portrayal of a small agrarian town in Chile in the midst of transformation. The end of the novel suggests that the outdated landowning system will soon be replaced by the emerging middle class, but it is also clear that traditional, reductive categories of economics, gender and sexuality will remain in place. This article explores Donoso’s use of animal symbolism depicting don Alejo as a rooster, La Manuela as both a female dog and hen, and Pancho as a violent dog. The repeated use of symbols serves as a way of calling attention to the hierarchy of the town and the “othering” of marginal characters including La Manuela, the homosexual transvestite, and the other prostitutes in the brothel. Many of the male characters, and especially Pancho, are depicted as dogs that mistreat the prostitutes and ultimately punish Manuela’s transgressions. Overall the novel serves as a metaphor of hell on earth for those marginal figures who fall outside of the conventional expectations defined by the powerful figure of don Alejo.
TL;DR: This article argued that Garcia Lorca's Dona Rosita la soltera is in essence metatheater and examined the play's ample instances of metatheatrical characteristics: spectacles within the spectacle, intertextuality, literary criticism, and characters who assume the role of director, stage manager, stage hand, prompter, spectator, and critic.
Abstract: This article argues that Garcia Lorca's Dona Rosita la soltera, which critics have considered his least typical and most traditional play, is in essence metatheater. After reviewing the concept of metatheater and critics' appreciation of the role metatheater has played in Lorca's other dramas, it examines the play's ample instances of metatheatrical characteristics: spectacles within the spectacle, intertextuality, literary criticism, and characters who assume the role of director, stage manager, stage hand, prompter, spectator, and critic. Rosita's Aunt, whom critics have seen as passive, conventional, and apathetic, emerges as dramatically crucial—she is the analogue of Lorca's frustrated directors in El publico and Comedia sin titulo. The article ends suggesting that the play's subtlety has caused critics to overlook its metatheatrical nature.
TL;DR: The authors examines Meinhold's novel Maria Schweidler, die Bernsteinhexe (1843) as an example of a literary hoax, and argues that it indicates a considerable achievement in literary deception.
Abstract: The article examines Meinhold’s novel Maria Schweidler, die Bernsteinhexe (1843) as an example of a literary hoax. Purporting to be an authentic seventeenth-century chronicle of a local witch trial, the text was conceived by Meinhold, a conservative Pomeranian cleric and novelist, as a challenge to the contemporary world of historical criticism, represented in particular by the theologian Straus. The test was whether scholars truly had the skills to distinguish fact from fiction. While the hoax provoked controversy at the highest level and led ultimately to the discrediting of its author, this study seeks to accord Meinhold some overdue recognition for successfully crafting his work in such a manner as to deceive his readership, at least for a time. Analysis of Meinhold’s use of paratextual elements such as preface, footnotes, intertitles and epilogue to construct the form of an edited text, shows that his method was not without skill. It is argued that, as well as offering a window on the religious debates and cultural sensibilities of its nineteenth-century context, this novel indicates a considerable achievement in literary deception.
TL;DR: In 2009 75 years had passed since the death of Finnur Jonsson (1858-1934) who was without doubt one of the most influential scholars of Old Norse studies of his day as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In 2009 75 years had passed since the death of Finnur Jonsson (1858–1934) who was without doubt one of the most influential scholars of Old Norse studies of his day. Even today, Jonsson casts a considerable shadow on those who work in his chosen fields which included virtually every aspect of Old Norse literature, grammar and lexicography. His editions of Hauksbok and Morkinskinna—old as they may be—are still the only ones available, and his comprehensive edition of skaldic poetry is still of use to those without access to the relevant manuscripts. Primarily, Jonsson was a phenomenally energetic scholar and productive to such a degree that his output in Old Norse studies has to my knowledge never been equalled. But he was also a scholar who based his work on strongly held and controversial beliefs that inevitably affected it, and as a result, his reputation, both during his lifetime and after his death, has been subject to very differing opinions. In this essay I would like to survey his career as a scholar and the much disputed legacy that Jonsson has left to his successors in the field of Old Norse studies.
TL;DR: Rotrou's most innovative use of violence is to make of it a conscious performance on the part of his characters as discussed by the authors, and violence is thus tied to the performance of insanity, to cross-dressing and to his fanfarons, among other elements.
Abstract: Violence has a significant and varied role in the theater of Jean Rotrou. Discord and strife are natural to the stage and violence is one of the ways such conflict may be expressed. The inherently spectacular nature of violence makes it particularly theatrical. At the same time, violence pleasingly tantalizes audiences. In this examination of Rotrou’s entire theatrical corpus, I first consider the use of “real” violence, both on stage and off. More interesting and even more common is potential violence, which includes threats of all sorts, as well as fortuitous interruptions. Potential violence avoids the serious difficulties that staging “real” violence entails; furthermore it opens the door to theatricality, as threats may be mere poses. Rotrou’s most innovative use of violence is to make of it a conscious performance on the part of his characters. Violence is thus tied to the performance of insanity, to cross-dressing, and to his fanfarons, among other elements. Finally Rotrou’s masterpiece, Le Veritable Saint Genest, reproduces the two levels of agency of violence—the playwright and his characters—while adding a third level, that of the violence represented, recounted, or threatened in the embedded play performed by Genest’s troupe. From a basic building block of dramatic spectacle and plot, Rotrou constructs a reflection on the nature of theatrical illusion.
TL;DR: This article examined the structure and internal development of Une Saison en enfer, Rimbaud's diary composed in prose poetry, and argued that the collection articulates the experience of madness as an integral part of the author's sojourn in a psychological Hades.
Abstract: This paper sets out to examine in detail the structure and internal development of Une Saison en enfer, Arthur Rimbaud’s diary composed in prose poetry. The paper argues that the collection articulates the experience of madness as an integral part of the author’s sojourn in a psychological Hades. At the same time it sees a journey towards a personal definition and sense of modernity as the means by which the victim ultimately extracts himself from his hell. Drawing on some of the key work on Une Saison en enfer by important Rimbaldians, the article seeks to illuminate and explain the central artistic tension in the collection between assertiveness and hesitation, certainty and doubt. Placing Rimbaud in the context of other writers who have explored alternative visions of Hell, the paper examines Rimbaud’s engagement with and rejection of traditional Western systems of belief and his fascination with oriental philosophies. The statement “Il faut etre absolument moderne” thus represents a culmination, a point of arrival, an emergence from hell.
TL;DR: Oscar Wilde's condemnation for homosexual acts in 1895 in England, where such acts were illegal, caused a great stir in France as well, even though such acts had not been illegal there since the beginning of the nineteenth century with the creation of the Napoleonic Code.
Abstract: Oscar Wilde’s condemnation for homosexual acts in 1895 in England, where such acts were illegal, caused a great stir in France as well, even though such acts had not been illegal there since the beginning of the nineteenth century with the creation of the Napoleonic Code. Both Wilde’s trial and, when he was released two years later, his arrival in France were covered extensively in the French press, with much commentary. It was just at this time that Pierre Loti, by then a very well known figure in France, began work on his play Judith Renaudin. Loti himself had been the subject of public speculation about his sexuality since the publication of his novel My Brother Yves in 1883. In Judith Renaudin, he makes use of an event that happened to his own ancestors during the persecution of Huguenots during the seventeenth century to speculate on what could happen to modern Frenchmen suspected of homosexuality should France follow in the path of England in the wake of the Wilde Affair.
TL;DR: The authors examines the role of nature in Thomas Glavinic's post-apocalyptic novel Die Arbeit der Nacht (2006) and argues that the protagonist's disconnect from the natural world contributes to his failed attempt to survive as the last human being on the planet.
Abstract: This article examines the role of nature in Thomas Glavinic’s post-apocalyptic novel Die Arbeit der Nacht (2006). The protagonist’s relationship with the natural world is based on a premodern dichotomy between civilization and nature, and the author makes use of classical and medieval imagery (e.g., mythological/fantastic animals) as well as specific topoi of landscape description (e.g., the locus amoenus and the locus terribilis) to highlight the protagonist’s estrangement from the natural world. Unlike the survivors in other well-known post-apocalyptic novels, such as Marlen Haushofer’s Die Wand or Arno Schmidt’s Schwarze Spiegel, Glavinic’s protagonist never reflects on his relationship with nature but remains strongly tied to the patterns of urban life. I argue that the protagonist’s disconnect from the natural world contributes to his failed attempt to survive as the last human being on the planet.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors of Die Welt von Gestern, Stefan Zweig's posthumous autobiography, present two particularities in its semantic and pragmatic aspects: the semantic core of the text is not the author, narrator and main character, as Philippe Lejeune's classic definition prescribes, but the world in which he lives.
Abstract: Die Welt von Gestern, Stefan Zweig’s posthumous autobiography, presents two particularities in its semantic and pragmatic aspects. On the one hand, the semantic core of the text is not the “I” of the author, narrator and main character, as Philippe Lejeune’s classic definition prescribes, but the “world” in which he lives. This is the reason why some critics have described it either as an “impersonal” or as a “super-personal” autobiography. On the other hand, the “world” Zweig projects in the text is quite different from that same world described by historians, so there is a lack of correspondence between the signs and their designata, that is to say, a problem of referentiality. This is the reason why it can thus be considered a very “personal” autobiography. There are two apparent contradictions: how can an autobiography be “super-personal”?, and how can it be considered “super-personal” in the narrative of the “I”, and, at the same time, very “personal” in the description of the “world”? The contradictions are not so if we realise that there is a connection between the “I” and the “world”, because it is not possible to explain the first without the latter, if we assume that the identity of certain individuals is constructed more with their impersonal relations (objects, ideas, work) than with their interpersonal relations. The construction of the “world” is the way to Zweig to reveal his personal “I”.
TL;DR: The older Scots romance Clariodus was found in a manuscript written in the second half of the sixteenth century (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates' MS 19.2.5) as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Older Scots romance Clariodus survives uniquely in a manuscript written in the second half of the sixteenth century (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Advocates’ MS 19.2.5). The romance itself was composed in the first half of the sixteenth century, most probably during the reign of King James V of Scotland. It is a remarkably close translation into decasyllabic couplets of the French prose romance, Cleriadus et Meliadice, estimated to have been composed between 1440 and 1444. Recent years have seen an increasing scholarly interest in the French Cleriadus, particularly concerning its focus on kingship, moral conduct and the presentation of Clariodus’ rise to power. By contrast, the Scottish romance has received regrettably little attention. This essay focuses on the poem’s authorship and sources. It interrogates a passage unique to the Scots translation in which Clariodus’ unknown author claims to have used two sources—the original French Cleriadus and a previous prose translation, commonly assumed to be in English. The plausibility of this assertion is tested via an examination of the fifteenth-century manuscripts and early reception of the original French romance at the court of Queen Marie d’Anjou. The predominantly female readers of Cleriadus are shown to provide both a ‘Scottish link’ which anticipates the sixteenth-century Scots translation and an ‘English link’ which provides a plausible context for an English prose translation.
TL;DR: The debate over whether line 1520b should be read as the emended "hond sweng" or the scribal "hord swenge" has been investigated in this article.
Abstract: In this article I consider the debate over whether line 1520b ought to be read as the emended “hond sweng” or the scribal “hord swenge.” It is a small point philologically but it raises interesting cultural and literary questions about the attitude of the Beowulf poet to arms and armour, to aggressive and defensive war gear, and to swords in particular. It has widely been assumed that swords are important in Beowulf and yet, the question of what their significance might be has received very little attention. Throughout the poem the hero is plagued by breaking, melting, and failing swords. He borrows, finds, and is given swords but unlike other English and Germanic heroes he is never identified with a single, great sword. I suggest that this is because, ultimately, Beowulf is conceived as a hondbana, a designation which has implications for what kind of a hero he proves to be.
TL;DR: In this article, a semiotic analysis of El Embrujado by Ramon del Valle-Inclan is presented, one of the five works that completes El retablo de la lujuria, la avaricia and the muerte.
Abstract: El embrujado by Ramon del Valle-Inclan, published first in 1913, did not enjoy a positive reception from the public and the critics. The play was not actually produced on stage until 1931 by the Teatro Munoz Seca. Even though critical reception was a bit more positive this time, the play did not achieve great public success. This essay constitutes a semiotic study of El embrujado by Ramon del Valle-Inclan, one of the five works that completes El retablo de la lujuria, la avaricia y la muerte. Through a methodic, semiotic analysis of the tragedy, we are able to unveil the linguistic and cultural resources utilized by the author to convey a specific meaning. This method will give us deeper insight into the techniques employed by Valle-Inclan for the formulation and transmission of the dramatic message. An analytical study of the symbiotic relationship between the dramatic signs and the language reveals how these signs influence and affect each other creating the typical “valleinclanian” atmosphere of superstition and mystery. The author uses religious/cultural codifications to create a particular impression of repulsion and scandal.
TL;DR: This paper explored the functioning of the more or less explicit and direct translational practices to which these utterances give rise and the links of these practices to the theme of translation, with particular reference to such French-language texts from the nineteenth and twentieth century as Prosper Merimee's Carmen and Ousmane Sembene's Les Bouts de bois de Dieu.
Abstract: The rendering of characters’ utterances in narrative can be particularly problematic when they are in a language that is different from the language of the narration (English rather than French, say). The functioning of the more or less explicit and direct translational practices to which these utterances give rise and the links of these practices to the theme of translation are explored, with particular reference to such French-language texts from the nineteenth and twentieth century as Prosper Merimee’s Carmen and Ousmane Sembene’s Les Bouts de bois de Dieu. More generally, their links to other kinds of metanarrative translations are considered.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors of Aline et Valcour and Clarissa describe an opposition between the supporters of two "camps": Christian virtue and libertinage, in which these camps are prepared to fight to the death.
Abstract: Sade is often seen as an author who wishes to convey a particular view of the world in his novels. It is well known that in life he passionately embraced a philosophy that was at once monist-materialist and libertine. This article explores the curious fact that it is difficult to locate a corresponding ‘message’ in Aline et Valcour, which is subtitled Le roman philosophique. One important reason for this is the influence of Richardson’s Clarissa. Both novels are built around an opposition between the supporters of two ‘camps’: Christian virtue and libertinage. In Aline et Valcour no less than in Clarissa, these camps are prepared to fight to the death. But in each of these novels, too, the opposition is not a straightforward one, for it has a symbiotic aspect. The libertines need the virtuous in order to achieve their goal of desecrating, and so symbolically defeating, the Christian view of the world. But the virtuous also need their libertine persecutors if they are to achieve the feats of moral suffering, associated with sensibilite, that constitute their highest aim. In brief, Aline et Valcour obeys a Richardsonian aesthetic in which each side is allowed to fight its cause without being definitively supported or undermined by the (implied) author. This helps to explain why, considered as a ‘philosophical novel’, it seems heuristic rather than dogmatic.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the function of emotions for social and cultural developments and demonstrate how much influence true love could have on the behavior of society at large, influencing it to embrace courtly values and ethics on a large scale.
Abstract: Already in the twelfth century European audiences learned about the later significantly popular account of Floire and Blancheflor which emphasizes the far-reaching impact that deeply erotic emotions can have on political power structures. The Middle High German sentimental version by Konrad Fleck serves here as a platform to analyze how much influence true love could have on the behavior of society at large, influencing it to embrace courtly values and ethics on a large scale. Whereas recent research has mostly focused on the performativity of emotions, here I examine the function of emotions for social and cultural developments. As Fleck demonstrates, when the two young lovers face their certain death at the hand of the Babylonian ruler, they demonstrate so much ardent love for each other that they fight over who would die first. This then moves the despotic Admiral to such an extent, along with all his people, that he lifts the death penalty, allows these two young people to marry, and enters into friendship with the young male protagonist. In fact, he changes his entire outlook on life and behavior, transforming into an almost ideal ruler who would fit right into the courtly world. The analysis demonstrates how much Fleck, similar to his European contemporary writers, advocated the value of emotions for didactic, moral, and even political purposes.
TL;DR: The authors focus on the lexical changes that AElfric made in order to show how he reworked the diction of his source text so that his works have his regular vocabulary. But they do not consider the use of synonyms.
Abstract: AElfric’s Lives of Saints contains two texts that he partly adapted from the Old English translation of Boethius’s De consolatione Philosophiae: Lives of Saints 1 (Nativitas Domini) and Lives of Saints 17 (De Auguriis). Although AElfric closely followed the language as well as the substance of his source material when writing these two adaptations, he made a number of linguistic changes including morphological, syntactical and lexical ones. In this paper, I focus on the lexical changes that he made in order to show how he reworked the diction of his source text so that his works have his regular vocabulary. The pattern of usage of some synonyms will also reinforce previous scholars’ view on the question of authorship of the AElfrician and non-AElfrician Lives of Saints.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present evidence for the pervasive influence of hagiographic themes, including the miraculous, shrines and relics, and unrelenting mercy, on the biography of Hakon Hakonarson, King of Norway from 1217 to 1263.
Abstract: In this paper I present evidence for the pervasive influence of hagiographic themes, including the miraculous, shrines and relics, and unrelenting mercy, on the biography of Hakon Hakonarson, King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. These elements are extant to a greater degree in Hakon’s biography than in any saga of the Heimskringla save that of St Olaf. Furthermore, I argue that the saga’s portrayal of the king as a saintly figure serves to compare him to the greatest Christian kings of the preceding centuries, even if only within the memorialization of the text itself and not in later memory. Studies of the saga remain largely historical, providing a (sometimes contested) backdrop of factual information over which studies of other literary and historical texts are made. With the current contribution I offer a different view, namely that of a richly textured royal biography that draws on the dominant literary forms of its day.
TL;DR: The Memoires de Madame de la Guette (1613-1676) constitute a major historical document on the series of crises that hit France in the middle of the seventeenth century as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Memoires de Madame de la Guette (1613–1676) constitute a major historical document on the series of crises that hit France in the middle of the seventeenth century. Beyond its status as an historical document, however, the author’s account of her struggles, successes and setbacks also reveals the everyday life of a woman who aspires to become noble. If Micheline Cuenin sees in the memoirs of Madame de la Guette the story of a woman who writes to remember (in contrast to men, who write memoirs to defend themselves), the aim of this article is to demonstrate, through an historical and literary perspective, her desire to justify herself and her choices (in particular, her choice of a husband against her father’s wishes) and to prove that her life had purpose.