Medieval Narratives Between History And Fiction

Beskrivelse

This book dives into the complex debate surrounding the emergence of literary fiction in medieval Europe, challenging the traditional focus on twelfth and thirteenth-century French and German romances. It offers a fresh perspective by exploring a diverse range of medieval narratives across different languages and regions.

Exploring medieval storytelling beyond conventional boundaries.

Medieval Narratives between History and Fiction expands the conversation by stepping outside the well-trodden paths of French and German romances. Instead, it highlights texts written in Greek, Latin, Old Norse, and even Serbian, adopting a broad, long-term, and ‘peripheral’ viewpoint on the subject.

The collection takes readers on a journey from Graeco-Roman antiquity through medieval France, Scandinavia, southeastern Europe, and Byzantium, tracing a chronological spiral from antiquity to the fifteenth century. This approach reveals the interconnectedness of these regions and time periods in shaping medieval narratives.

By widening the linguistic, geographical, and chronological lens, the book argues against the idea of a simple ‘rise of fiction.’ Instead, it suggests that fiction was always intertwined with historical storytelling, and that understanding medieval fiction today requires acknowledging the importance of non-fictional and non-vernacular works.

Panagiotis A. Agapitos is a Professor of Byzantine literature at the University of Cyprus.

Lars Boje Mortensen serves as Professor of Ancient and Medieval Cultural History and leads the Centre for Medieval Literature at the University of Southern Denmark. He was also Professor II of Medieval Latin at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Bergen until 2011.

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