Living Death in Medieval French and English Literature

by Jane Gilbert

Overview

Medieval literature contains many figures caught at the interface between life and death - the dead return to place demands on the living, while the living foresee, organize or desire their own deaths. Jane Gilbert's original study examines the ways in which certain medieval literary texts, both English and French, use these 'living dead' to think about existential, ethical and political issues. In doing so, she shows powerful connections between works otherwise seen as quite disparate, including Chaucer's Book of the Duchess and Legend of Good Women, the Chanson de Roland and the poems of Francois Villon. Written for researchers and advanced students of medieval French and English literature, this book provides original, provocative interpretations of canonical medieval texts in the light of influential modern theories, especially Lacanian psychoanalysis, presented in an accessible and lively way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780511861758
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/17/2011
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature , #84
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	487 KB

About the Author

Jane Gilbert is Senior Lecturer in French at University College London.

Table of Contents

Introduction: living death; 1. Roland and the second death; 2. The knight as thing: courtly love in the non-cyclic prose Lancelot; 3. The Ubi Sunt? Topos in Middle French: sad stories of the death of kings; 4. Ceci n'est pas une marguerite: anamorphosis in Pearl; 5. Becoming woman in Chaucer: on ne naît pas femme, on le devient en mourant; Conclusion: living dead or dead-in-life?

Editorial Reviews

"In this rich and illuminating study of medieval French and English texts, Jane Gilbert sets out to demonstrate the significance and literary uses of figures caught between life and death."
Emma Campbell, Medium Aevum

From the Publisher