Search results for ""Author Simon Gaunt""

The first book in English to examine one of the most important and influential texts from a literary perspective. Le Devisement du Monde (1298), better though inaccurately known in English as Marco Polo's Travels, is one of only a handful of medieval texts that remain iconic today for European cultural history, and Marco Polo is one of only a handful of medieval writers who still enjoys instant name-recognition. Yet there is little awareness of the Devisement's complex history and development. This book examines the text from a fresh, literary viewpoint, drawing upon a range of different disciplines and approaches: philology, manuscript studies, narratology, cultural history, postcolonial studies and theory. It contains comparative readings of multiple versions of the text in French, Italian and Latin, Rather than offering a Eurocentric vision of the world grounded in a sense of the absolute alterity of the non-Christian world as is often asserted, the author shows how the Devisement expounds a sense of the relative nature of difference, crucially positioning Marco uncannily between two worlds (East and West), just as he is positioned awkwardly between two languages, French and Italian, and (in modern reception at least) awkwardly between two literary histories. The author also calls into question traditional accounts of the use of French outside France in the Middle Ages and offers a re-assessment of Marco Polo's position in the evolution of European travel writing. SIMON GAUNT was Professor of French Language and Literature at King's College London.

Read more less

The first book in English to examine one of the most important and influential texts from a literary perspective. Le Devisement du Monde (1298), better though inaccurately known in English as Marco Polo's Travels, is one of only a handful of medieval texts that remain iconic today for European cultural history, and Marco Polo is one of only a handful of medieval writers who still enjoys instant name-recognition. Yet there is little awareness of the Devisement's complex history and development. This book examines the text from a fresh, literary viewpoint, drawing upon a range of different disciplines and approaches: philology, manuscript studies, narratology, cultural history, postcolonial studies and theory. It contains comparative readings of multiple versions of the text in French, Italian and Latin, Rather than offering a Eurocentric vision of the world grounded in a sense of the absolute alterity of the non-Christian world as is often asserted, the author shows how the Devisement expounds a sense of the relative nature of difference, crucially positioning Marco uncannily between two worlds (East and West), just as he is positioned awkwardly between two languages, French and Italian, and (in modern reception at least) awkwardly between two literary histories. The author also calls into question traditional accounts of the use of French outside France in the Middle Ages and offers a re-assessment of Marco Polo's position in the evolution of European travel writing. SIMON GAUNT is Professor of French Language and Literature at King's College London.

Read more less

Charles the king, our emperor great, Has been a full seven years in Spain. As far as the sea he conquered this haughty land. Not a single castle remains standing in his path Charlemagne (768-814) was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 and presided over a huge empire. He frequently appears in literature as a great warlord and pious crusading figure. In 778, the rearguard of Charlemagne's retreating army was ambushed and defeated at the battle of Roncevaux. This became the inspiration for songs and poems celebrating deeds of valour in the face of overwhelming odds, through the character of Charlemagne's nephew (the imaginary) Roland. The Song of Roland is the most stirring and moving epic poem of the European Middle Ages, offering a particularly heady mixture of history, legend, and poetry. Presented here in a lively and idiomatic new translation, the Song of Roland offers fascinating insights into medieval ideas about heroism, manhood, religion, race, and nationhood which were foundational for modern European culture. The Song of Roland is accompanied here by two other medieval French epics about Charlemagne, both of which show him to be a far more equivocal figure than that portrayed by the Roland: the Occitan Daurel and Beton, in which he is a corrupt and avaricious monarch; and the Journey of Charlemagne to Jerusalem and Constantinople, which gives the heroes of the Roland a comic makeover.

Read more less

New critical edition of complete work of 12c Occitanian troubadour Marcabru, crucial figure in development of European courtly lyric. One of the earliest troubadours, Marcabru was a remarkable artist and entertainer, and a figure of crucial importance to the development of the European courtly lyric. His blistering attacks on contemporary court society reveal anintellectual insider's view of the clash between clerical morality and the emerging secular ethics of love and courtesy. His fervent, often acerbic engagement with contemporary events also provides a unique southern perspective on political upheavals and crusading movements in twelfth-century Occitania and northern Spain. This new critical edition, the first for nearly 100 years, makes his complete corpus accessible to a wide readership, supplying translations, full critical apparatus, and copious textual notes, with a substantial glossary of Marcabru's extraordinarily inventive vocabulary. The introduction supplies historical information, discussion of the poet's language, andan analysis of the manuscript transmission. It also raises fresh issues of troubadour versification techniques in this formative period, and engages in a new way with the current debate about editorial methodology and medieval textual criticism. [Leaflet blurb - see AN]

Read more less