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"Piers Plowman" and the poetics of enigma : riddles, rhetoric, and theology by Curtis A. Gruenler is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is "Piers Plowman" and the poetics of enigma : riddles, rhetoric, and theology about?

"In this book, Curtis Gruenler proposes that the concept of the enigmatic, latent in a wide range of medieval thinking about literature, can help us better understand in medieval terms much of the era's most enduring literature, from the riddles of the Anglo-Saxon bishop Aldhelm to the great vernacular works of Dante, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich, and, above all, Langland's Piers Plowman. Riddles, rhetoric, and theology--the three fields of meaning of aenigma in medieval Latin--map a way of thinking about reading and writing obscure literature that was widely shared across the Middle Ages. The poetics of enigma links inquiry about language by theologians with theologically ambitious literature. Each sense of enigma brings out an aspect of this poetics. The playfulness of riddling, both oral and literate, was joined to a Christian vision of literature by Aldhelm and the Old English riddles of the Exeter Book. Defined in rhetoric as an obscure allegory, enigma was condemned by classical authorities but resurrected under the influence of Augustine as an aid to contemplation. Its theological significance follows from a favorite biblical verse among medieval theologians, "We see now throu

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Author

Curtis A. Gruenler

Publisher

University of Notre Dame Press

Published

2017

Language

EN

ISBN

9780268101640

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

History, Literary Fiction, Poetry