Poetry, Knowledge and Community in Late Medieval France by Rebecca Dixon, Finn E. Sinclair, Adrian Armstrong, Sylvia Huot, Sarah Kay

Abstract

MLR, 105.3, 2010 869 Active scenarios of agency/ The supposed agency of a character is always an ela borate pretence, given that the term strictly refers to individuals' capacity to act independently and tomake their own free choices. It isnarrative imagination itself that is a genuine form and practice of human agency. Again, authenticity is a termwith deeper philosophical significance than this study seems to allow, and ought not to be reduced to a stylistic preference or method (p. 12). Scott often uses as an analogy for traditional authorship?based on a concept of neutrality or transparency (p. 15)?the example of Japanese Bunraku puppeteers, where most of the figures require three black-robed puppeteers per forming in full view of the audience. Scott believes 'the audience ceases to notice (p. 15). Itmust be the case, though, that some of the audience remain aware of the controlling human figures, just as some readers are always conscious of authorship. Despite these reservations, many of the close textual readings in this study are acute and interesting, as are some of the analyses of narrative and its relationship to structure. All literarywriting is a form of ventriloquism, and narrative is a process of intervention in theworld of events and the lives of others; as such it is necessarily approximate, as Scott concedes (p. 32). Much of this vitality is ably captured here, though at times the issues are contained in a restricted aesthetic and technical zone. For instance: 'To reproduce speech, as has been suggested, is in mimetic terms a relatively simple task forawriter, as thewords written on the page will have a (more or less) direct equiponderant relationship with those intended to have been spoken by the character' (pp. 31-32). This somewhat misses the point thatmimesis revolves around its relation to the real. Overall the stylisticvariations Scott draws attention to are of great interest, though theymay not be as globally significant as his book suggests. However, this book deserves to be bought for all libraries thathave staffand students interested in the field of contemporary fiction. It should generate interesting debate. Brunel University Philip Tew Poetry,Knowledge and Community inLateMedieval France. Ed. byRebecca Dixon and Finn E. Sinclair, with Adrian Armstrong, Sylvia Huot, and Sarah Kay. (Gallica, 13)Woodbridge: Brewer. 2008. 250 pp. ?55. ISBN 978-1 84384-177-7. This coherent and innovative collection of essays explores the development of the role of poetry as a vehicle fordisseminating knowledge and creating community at a timewhen, paradoxically, prose was verymuch in the ascendant as the preferred literaryform. Jacqueline Cerquiglini-Toulet shows how Christine de Pizan changed from using poetry towrite about love to seeing itas a path to learning in itsown right.David Hult contrasts the exuberance of JeandeMeun's poetic practice in the Roman de la Rose with his more sober renderings of Latin texts in French prose translation. Amandine Mussou examines the representation of the game of chess played by the poet and the lady in the didactic Livre des esches amoureux both as 870 Reviews a means of teaching the game itself and as an art of love for the courtly reader. Mistooni Bose discusses JeanGerson's Latin poetic works in terms of the kinds of knowledge conveyed in his poetry and of the different sides of himself that he reveals. Lori J. Walters analyses how Gerson and Christine de Pizan attempt to increase the authority of the vernacular by exploiting its potential for allegorical revelation ofmoral truths and for creation of a sense of community. Michel Zink argues that the razos of the troubadours make more explicit than the poems them selves the inherent sadomasochism and voyeurism of sexual desire that underpin their poetic creation. Deborah McGrady examines how fifteenth-century versions of the prose translation of Ovid's Ars amatoria use poetic glosses to challenge and contest the authority of the Latin poet's master narrative. Stephanie Kamath explores thevarious functions played by the lyricpassages of versions of thePeleri nage de vie humaine. David Wrisley asserts thatGerard deNevers, the Burgundian prose reworking of theRoman de la Violette, preserves only the vestiges of its lyric insertions, shiftingfrom a focus on love to a celebration of the chivalric...