Space, Gender, and Memory in Middle English Romance
Architectures of Wonder in Melusine
Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Medieval, Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies
| Author: | Jan Shaw | ISBN: | 9781137450463 |
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan US | Publication: | August 29, 2016 |
| Imprint: | Palgrave Macmillan | Language: | English |
| Author: | Jan Shaw |
| ISBN: | 9781137450463 |
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan US |
| Publication: | August 29, 2016 |
| Imprint: | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Language: | English |
This book offers a much-needed consideration of Melusine within medieval and contemporary theories of space, memory, and gender. The Middle English Melusine offers a particularly rich source for such a study, as it presents the story of a powerful fairy/human woman who desires a full human life—and death—within a literary tradition that is more friendly to women’s agency than its continental counterparts. After establishing a “textual habitus of wonder,” Jan Shaw explores the tale in relation to a range of Middle English traditions including love and marriage, the spatial practices of women, the operation of individual and collective memory, and the legacies of patrimony. Melusine emerges as a complex figure, representing a multifaceted feminine subject that furthers our understanding of Middle English women’s sense of self in the world.
This book offers a much-needed consideration of Melusine within medieval and contemporary theories of space, memory, and gender. The Middle English Melusine offers a particularly rich source for such a study, as it presents the story of a powerful fairy/human woman who desires a full human life—and death—within a literary tradition that is more friendly to women’s agency than its continental counterparts. After establishing a “textual habitus of wonder,” Jan Shaw explores the tale in relation to a range of Middle English traditions including love and marriage, the spatial practices of women, the operation of individual and collective memory, and the legacies of patrimony. Melusine emerges as a complex figure, representing a multifaceted feminine subject that furthers our understanding of Middle English women’s sense of self in the world.
