This book offers a much-needed consideration of Melusine within medieval and contemporary theories of space, memory, and gender. The Middle English Melusine offers a particularly rich source for such a study, as it presents the story of a powerful fairy/human woman who desires a full human life-and death-within a literary tradition that is more friendly to women's agency than its continental counterparts. After establishing a "textual habitus of wonder," Jan Shaw explores the tale in relation to a range of Middle English traditions including love and marriage, the spatial practices of women, the operation of individual and collective memory, and the legacies of patrimony. Melusine emerges as a complex figure, representing a multifaceted feminine subject that furthers our understanding of Middle English women's sense of self in the world.
Dieser Download kann aus rechtlichen Gründen nur mit Rechnungsadresse in A, B, BG, CY, CZ, D, DK, EW, E, FIN, F, GR, HR, H, IRL, I, LT, L, LR, M, NL, PL, P, R, S, SLO, SK ausgeliefert werden.
"The story of the beautiful fairy Mélusine who is cursed by her own mother to transform into a half-serpent once a week has fascinated readers for centuries. ... Shaw's analysis covers an impressive range of modern and medieval concepts ... . Shaw's work lays a good and highly promising foundation for future discussions about this text, and about feminine subjectivity in Middle English romance more broadly." (Lydia Zeldenrust, Modern Language Review, Vol. 133 (2) April, 2018)