Overview

Bestsellers and masterpieces: The changing medieval canon addresses the strange fact that, in both European and Middle Eastern medieval studies, those texts that we now study and teach as the most canonical representations of their era were in fact not popular or even widely read in their day. On the other hand, those texts that were popular, as evidenced by the extant manuscript record, are taught and studied with far less frequency. The book provides cross-cultural insight into both the literary tastes of the medieval period and the literary and political forces behind the creation of the 'modern canon' of medieval literature.

Full Product Details

Author:   Heather Blurton ,  Dwight F. Reynolds (Professor of Arabic Language and Literature)
Publisher:   Manchester University Press
Imprint:   Manchester University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 23.80cm
Weight:   0.340kg
ISBN:  

9781526178770

ISBN 10:   152617877
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   30 April 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available, will be POD  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon it's release. This is a print on demand item which is still yet to be released.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Heather Blurton and Dwight F. Reynolds Part I: Hanging by a thread: unique manuscripts and their place in the ‘modern’ medieval canon 1. Contemplating books with Usama ibn Munqidh’s Book of Contemplation – Paul M. Cobb 2. Dons and dragons: Beowulf and ‘popular reading’ – Daniel C. Remein and Erica Weaver 3. Ibn ?azm’s ?awq al-?amama (The Neck-Ring of the Dove) – Boris Liebrenz 4. 'Thirty pieces of silver': interpreting anti-Jewish imagery in the Poema de mio Cid manuscript – Ryan D. Giles 5. ‘Let no bad song be sung of us’: fame, memory and transmission in/and the Chanson de Roland – Sharon Kinoshita Part II: Medieval bestsellers: reading the ‘medieval canon’? 6. World literature and its discontents: reading the life of A?iqar – Daniel L. Selden 7. The Alexander Romance in the age of scribal reproduction: the aesthetics and precariousness of a popular text – Shamma Boyarin 8. Wisdom literature and the medieval bestsellers – Karla Mallette 9. Lost worlds: encyclopedism and riddles in the tale of Tawaddud/Theodor – Christine Chism Index -- .

Reviews

'The essays [...] invite the reader to consider the pre-modern and modern cultural milieu that led to specific works’ genesis and, centuries later, privileged position in the canon and to consider a place for once widely-transmitted works that have since been marginalized—two intellectual ventures that will undoubtedly enhance scholarship and undergraduate curricula.' Arthuriana -- .

Author Information

Heather Blurton is Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara Dwight F. Reynolds is Distinguished Professor of Arabic Language and Literature in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara

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