The Art of Medieval French Romance

Abstract

In this study, Douglas Kelly provides a comprehensive analysis of the art of medieval French romance as the romancers themselves describe it. It focuses on well-known writers, such as Chretien de Troyes and Marie de France, but also draws on a range of other sources, such as prose romances, non-Arthurian romances, 13th-century verse romances and variant versions from the later Middle Ages. Kelly presents the art of medieval romances to a modern audience through the interventions and comments of medieval writers themselves. The book begins by examining the difficulties scholars perceive in medieval literature - problems such as source and intertextuality, structure in its manifold modern meanings, and character psychology and individuality. These issues frame Kelly's identification and discussion of all the known authorial interventions on the art and craft of romance.