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The Scottish Legendary: Towards a poetics of hagiographic narration

Online ISBN:
9781526109675
Print ISBN:
9780719095962
Publisher:
Manchester University Press
Book

The Scottish Legendary: Towards a poetics of hagiographic narration

Eva von Contzen
Eva von Contzen
University of Freiburg
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Published online:
22 September 2016
Published in print:
1 April 2016
Online ISBN:
9781526109675
Print ISBN:
9780719095962
Publisher:
Manchester University Press

Abstract

The first book-length study of the Scottish Legendary (late 14th c.), the only extant collection of saints’ lives in the vernacular from medieval Scotland, scrutinises the dynamics of hagiographic narration, its implicit assumptions about literariness, and the functions of telling the lives of the saints. The fifty saints’ legends are remarkable for their narrative art: the enjoyment of reading the legends is heightened, while didactic and edifying content is toned down. Focusing on the role of the narrator, the depiction of the saintly characters, their interiority, as well as temporal and spatial parameters, it is demonstrated that the Scottish poet has adapted the traditional material to the needs of an audience versed in reading romance and other secular genres. The implications of the Scottish poet’s narrative strategies are analysed also with respect to the Scottishness of the legendary and its overall place in the hagiographic landscape of late medieval Britain.

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