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Stylistic and Narrative Structures in the Middle English Romances by Susan Wittig is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

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This volume provides a generic description, based on a formal analysis of narrative structures, of the Middle English noncyclic verse romances. As a group, these poems have long resisted generic definition and are traditionally considered to be a conglomerate of unrelated tales held together in a historical matrix of similar themes and characters. As single narratives, they are thought of as random collections of events loosely structured in chronological succession. Susan Wittig, however, offers evidence that the romances are carefully ordered (although not always consciously so) according to a series of formulaic patterns and that their structures serve as vehicles for certain essential cultural patterns and are important to the preservation of some community-held beliefs. The analysis begins on a stylistic level, and the same theoretical principles applied to the linguistic formulas of the poems also serve as a model for the study of narrative structures. The author finds that there are laws that govern the creation, selection, and arrangement of narrative materials in the romance genre and that act to restrict innovation and control the narrative form. The reasons for this stri

Who reads Stylistic and Narrative Structures in the Middle English Romances?

Author

Susan Wittig

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published

2014

Language

EN

ISBN

9780292766549

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

History, Literary Criticism, Romance