IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hig/wpaper/07-ls-2015.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

First Works of Arthurian Literature in the 12th Century: At the Boundary between History and Fiction

Author

Listed:
  • Natalia M. Dolgorukova

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

Abstract

The paper explores how the authors of the first works of the so-called Arthurian cycle tried to raise the status of their narrative using the Latin rhetorical triad (‘historia’, ‘argumentum’, ‘fabula’). Macrobius, Isidore of Seville, Geoffrey Map were just a few of the authors who used these categories for the analysis of literary works. This reflection on the form and function of the text is also important for the literature written in the vernacular (Wace, Chretien de Troyes, Guillaume de Lorris, etc.). The paper shows that this intention was one of the reasons for criticism form the so-called “professional historians”, e.g. William of Newburgh, the British historian of the 12th century. First works of Arthurian literature (e.g. The History of the Kings of England by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Le Roman de Brut by Wace) contained specific historiographic claims and downplayed the proportion of invented elements. They could vary depending on the language (Latin and Old French) and the audience for which the texts were written

Suggested Citation

  • Natalia M. Dolgorukova, 2015. "First Works of Arthurian Literature in the 12th Century: At the Boundary between History and Fiction," HSE Working papers WP BRP 07/LS/2015, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:07/ls/2015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hse.ru/data/2015/03/24/1093338501/07LS2015.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    «Historia»; «fabula»; «argumentum»; Galfrid of Monmouth; Wace; historiography; fiction;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z - Other Special Topics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:07/ls/2015. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shamil Abdulaev or Shamil Abdulaev (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hsecoru.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.