Water in Medieval Literature (eBook)

An Ecocritical Reading

Albrecht Classen (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2017
358 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
9781498539852 (ISBN)

Infos

This book uncovers the tremendous importance of water for European medieval literature, focusing on a large number of writers and poets. Water proves to be highly meaningful in religious, literary, and factual narratives insofar as it emerges as a central catalyst to bring about epiphany and epistemological and spiritual illumination.

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Ecocritical thinking has sensitized us more than ever before to the tremendous importance of water for human life, as it is richly reflected in the world of literature. The great relevance of water also in the Middle Ages might come as a surprise for many readers, but the evidence assembled here confirms that also medieval poets were keenly aware of the importance of water to sustain all life, to provide understanding of life's secrets, to mirror love, and to connect the individual with God. In eleven chapters major medieval European authors and their works are discussed here, taking us from the world of Old Norse to Irish and Latin literature, to German, French, English, and Italian romances and other narratives.

Autor

Albrecht Classen is University Distinguished Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona.

Inhalt

Chapter One – Water, Literature, Symbolism, and Epistemology in the Pre-Modern Age: A Pan-European PerspectiveHerzog Ernst: Transformation and Maturation through Travel into the Mysterious OrientThe Voyage of St. Brendan: Spiritual Epistemology in the Western SeasLais by Marie de France: The Search for Happiness in a Fluid WorldGregorius: The Religious Transformation Through WaterParzival: The Material and the Spiritual Dimension of Water in a Middle High German Grail RomanceThe Flowing Light of the Divinity: Spirituality, Liquidity, and EpistemologyDecameron (ca. 1351): Narrative Explorations of Tears, Water in Fountains, Wells, and in the MediterraneanNjal’s Saga: Travel, War, and Water in the World of Old Norse LiteratureChapter Eleven – Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptaméron and other Problems with Water: Flooding, Voyaging, Sexual Violence, and RefugeEpilogue

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.8.2017
• Reihe/Serie: Ecocritical Theory and Practice
• Zusatzinfo: 1 Illustrations including: - 1 Halftones, Black & White including Black & White Photographs.
• Verlagsort: Lanham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Essays / Feuilleton
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Natur / Ökologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Baptism • Boccaccio • conversion through water • German • Germany • Hartmann von Aue • Herzog Ernst • Jean d’Arras • Jean d’Arras • Marguerite de Navarre • Marie de France • Mechthild of Magdeburg • Medieval Literature • Middle Ages • Nibelungenlied • Njál’s Saga • Njál’s Saga • St. Brendan • water politics • Wolfram von Eschenbach
• ISBN-13: 9781498539852 / 9781498539852