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Poetic Prologues
Medieval Conversations with the Literary Past
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It is often assumed that medieval writers approach history naively. Medieval chronicles, it is argued, reveal an allegorical disposition that denies the importance of factual verification. While this position holds true to a degree, it also ignores some complex and fascinating perspectives on the past. In this study, one such perspective is examined by means of literary narratives, mostly from the 12th and 14th centuries. More specifically, this study shows how medieval writers reshape historiographical conventions in their literary narratives to explore historical understanding, which they pr...
It is often assumed that medieval writers approach history naively. Medieval chronicles, it is argued, reveal an allegorical disposition that denies the importance of factual verification. While this position holds true to a degree, it also ignores some complex and fascinating perspectives on the past. In this study, one such perspective is examined by means of literary narratives, mostly from the 12th and 14th centuries. More specifically, this study shows how medieval writers reshape historiographical conventions in their literary narratives to explore historical understanding, which they present as inexorably tied to literary creativity.
Fundamentally, the writers in this study find the linearity that structures time as well as writing to be a highly problematic constraint. While undeniably critical to our understanding, linearity tends to diminish the rich ambiguities that give meaning to all we experience. Building on such insights, these writers focus on literary issues defined by time - such as authority, memory, perception, and creativity - in order to probe how literature might avoid static memorializing and instead creatively invigorate memory.
To examine these ideas, the study develops a model based on rhetorical and semiotic principles. In the first of three parts, the rhetorical principle of the enthymeme and a prefatory topos, the "translatio studii et imperii", are explored. Part two semiotically analyzes different manifestations of the narrator as writer and reader as well as how these narrators are mirrored in different characters. Finally, part three traces tensions between historiographical and fictional visions in three narratives of the 14th century, while mapping out literary theoretical statements on time, the metaphorical, and creativity.
Fundamentally, the writers in this study find the linearity that structures time as well as writing to be a highly problematic constraint. While undeniably critical to our understanding, linearity tends to diminish the rich ambiguities that give meaning to all we experience. Building on such insights, these writers focus on literary issues defined by time - such as authority, memory, perception, and creativity - in order to probe how literature might avoid static memorializing and instead creatively invigorate memory.
To examine these ideas, the study develops a model based on rhetorical and semiotic principles. In the first of three parts, the rhetorical principle of the enthymeme and a prefatory topos, the "translatio studii et imperii", are explored. Part two semiotically analyzes different manifestations of the narrator as writer and reader as well as how these narrators are mirrored in different characters. Finally, part three traces tensions between historiographical and fictional visions in three narratives of the 14th century, while mapping out literary theoretical statements on time, the metaphorical, and creativity.