1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910787161203321

Autore

Nyffenegger Nicole

Titolo

Authorising history : gestures of authorship in fourteenth-century English historiography / / by Nicole Nyffenegger

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom : , : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, , 2013

ISBN

1-4438-6841-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (230 p.)

Disciplina

941.0072

942.037

Soggetti

Historical poetry, English - History and criticism

Historical poetry, English - Authorship

English literature - Middle English, 1100-1500 - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

TABLE OF CONTENTS; PREFACE; INTRODUCTION; The four works; Robert Mannyng of Brunne's chronicle; Robert of Gloucester's chronicle; The Northern and the Southern versions of the Cursor Mundi; CHAPTER ONE; The historiographer as mediator; The "unlearned" audience; The written text and aural prelection; Material metaphors for the writing of history; CHAPTER TWO; Time matters: past, present and the authorial persona; Space in time: "land" as epoch marker and motif; Conquerors, kings, and the Virgin Mary; CHAPTER THREE; The power of the book to preserve the truth

Books as the exclusive domain of the literatusLetters of liberation; Robert Mannyng's emphasis on letters of liberation; CHAPTER FOUR; Robert Mannyng's evaluation of his sources; Appropriating the sources' authority; Eluding the control exerted by the authoritative sources; Criticising and challenging the sources; CHAPTER FIVE; Framing the text with the authorial persona; The functions of "here" and "now"; Mannyng's reaction to Wace's gestures of authorship; CONCLUSION; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

""This book discusses the strategies and rhetorical means by which four authors of Middle English verse historiography seek to authorise their works and themselves. Paying careful attention to the texts, it traces



the ways in which authors inscribe their fictional selves and seek to give authority to their constructions of history. It further investigates how the authors position themselves in relation to their task of writing history, their sources and their audiences. This study provides new...