Throughout the Middle Ages, many Francophone texts - chansons de geste, medieval romance, works by Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France - were widely translated in north-western Europe. In the process, these texts were frequently transformed to reflect the new cultures in which they appeared. This book argues that such translations, prime sites for cultural movement and encounters, provide a rich opportunity to study linguistic and cultural identity both in and through time. Via a close comparison of a number of these texts, examining the various modifications made, and drawing on a number of critical discourses ranging from post-colonial criticism to translation theory, the author explores the complexities of cultural dialogue and dissent. This approach both recognises and foregrounds the complex matrix of influence, resistance and transformations within the languages and cultural traditions of medieval Europe, revealing the undercurrents of cultural conflict apparent in medieval textuality.
Sif Rikhardsdottir is Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Iceland.
Reviews
[T]his book offers models for further studies of adaptations from Old French narrative texts into Old Norse, Middle English, and other languages. For those in medieval French studies. FRENCH STUDIES
[T]truly impressive in the range of its historical and geographic coverage. THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW
[A] significant contribution to romance in a European context and an invitation to look over the traditional boundaries--linguistic, national and academic--of medieval studies. It will disappoint no one interested in the richness and complexity of medieval textual culture. THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW
[H]elps us to understand the relationship between writer, culture and story. [...] it covers terrain carefully and thoroughly and contain[s] many fascinating insights. BIBLIOBUFFET.COM
Details
First Published: 19 Jan 2012
13 Digit ISBN: 9781843842897
Pages: 212
Size: 23.4 x 15.6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Subject:
Medieval LiteratureBIC Class: DSBB
Details updated on 13 Jun 2013
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Imperial Implications of Medieval Translations: Textual Transmission of Marie de France's Lais
- 3 Behavioural Transformations in the Old Norse Version of La Chanson de Roland
- 4 Narrative Transformations in the Old Norse and Middle English Versions of Le Chevalier au Lion [or Yvain]
- 5 Female Sovereignty and Male Authority in the Old Norse and Middle English Versions of Partonopeu de Blois
- 6 Appendix: Summaries of the Versions of Partonopeu de Blois
- 7 Conclusion
- 8 Bibliography
