Overview

A story that follows a simple trajectory is seldom worth telling. But the unexpected overturning of narrative progress creates complexity and interest, directing the reader's attention to the most powerful elements of a story. Exile, for example, upsets a protagonist's hopes for a happy earthly life, emphasizing spiritual perception instead. Waking life interrupts dreams, just as dreams may redirect how one lives. Focusing on medieval literature, this study explores how narrative subversion works in such well known stories as Beowulf, Piers Plowman, Le Morte D'Arthur, The Canterbury Tales, Troylus and Criseyde, ""Voluspa"" and other Old Norse sagas, Grail quest romances, and many others.

Full Product Details

Author:   E.L. Risden
Publisher:   McFarland & Co Inc
Imprint:   McFarland & Co Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.277kg
ISBN:  

9780786477784

ISBN 10:   0786477784
Pages:   192
Publication Date:   15 July 2016
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Table of Contents Acknowledgments Preface—Narrative Subversion: A Step Toward a Simple Theory of Narrative 1—Lost in the ­Not-So-Funhouse: Subversive Threads in the Medieval Narrative Labyrinth 2—Narrative Subversion and the Solutionless Problem 3—An Aesthetics of Subversion in Beowulfian Narrative 4—Subverting Authority: Dryht, Allegory and Old English Exile Poems 5—Subverting Ends: Death and the Dead—or Not—in Völuspá and Some Sagas 6—Grail Quest Romances: Subverting a Happy Ending 7—Plowing, Bowing, Burning, Journeying: Penance and Subverting Penance in Medieval Literature 8—Malory’s Morte: Subverting the World’s Greatest Knight 9—Troilus and Cressida and Subverting Genre Postscript—Meta-, Para-, Neo-, Socio-phrase: Gavin Douglas’s ­Sub-versive Eneados Chapter Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

"""Narrative Subversion in Medieval Literature is readable and teachable... As a theory, Risden's notion of 'narrative subversion' is portable and not overly abstract, complicated, or technical, allowing it to be understood and applied... Coverage of so many varieties of medieval literature makes the book potentially useful... easily digestible""--Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching"

Narrative Subversion in Medieval Literature is readable and teachable... As a theory, Risden's notion of 'narrative subversion' is portable and not overly abstract, complicated, or technical, allowing it to be understood and applied... Coverage of so many varieties of medieval literature makes the book potentially useful... easily digestible --Studies in Medieval & Renaissance Teaching

Author Information

E.L. Risden, emeritus professor of English at St. Norbert College, lives in De Pere, Wisconsin, where he continues to write literary and movie scholarship, speculative fiction, and occasional poetry.

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