Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Retelling the Tale: An Introduction to Medieval French Literature

Retelling the Tale: An Introduction to Medieval French Literature

Gaunt, Simon

Paperback

Series: New Readings

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 0715629255
ISBN13: 9780715629253
Publisher: Bristol Classical Press
Published: Jul 26 2001
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.49
Height: 0.47 Width: 5.88 Depth: 8.10
Language: English

This accessible introduction to medieval French literature concentrates on how to enjoy reading this lively and influential literary tradition. Rather than offering a conventional literary history, Simon Gaunt suggests strategies for reading medieval French texts, many of which retell traditional stories. A common misconception among students and dated textbooks is that medieval French literature is merely a 'recording' of an oral tradition. This book draws a picture of medieval literature, showing that medieval writers were in fact very aware that they were retelling tales in a new medium.

The author shows that, although many early texts allude to oral sources for these stories, they belong to a sophisticated and witty written culture that revels in knowledge of competing interpretations of the same story and in the intellectual games that writing enables. Retelling the Tale gives those coming to medieval French literature for the first time a clear sense of how stimulating and enjoyable these texts can be.

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