Texts and the Self in the Twelfth Century

This book analyses key twelfth-century Latin and vernacular texts which articulate an autobiographical stance.

Sarah Spence (Author)

9780521024471, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 9 March 2006

184 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.279 kg

Texts and the Self in the Twelfth Century analyses key twelfth-century Latin and vernacular texts which articulate a subjective, often autobiographical, stance. The contention is that the self forged in medieval literature could not have come into existence without both the gap between Latinity and the vernacular and a shift in perspective towards a visual and spatial orientation. This results in a self which is not an agent that will act on the outside world like the Renaissance self, but, rather, one which inhabits a potential, middle ground, or 'space of agency', explained here partly in terms of object-relations theory.

Acknowledgements
1. Corpus, body, text (and self)
2. Writing out the body: Abbot Suger, De administratione
3. Text of the body: Abelard and Guibert de Nogent
4. Text of the self: Guilhem IX and Jaufre Rudel, Bernart de Vantadorn, Raimbaut d'Aurenga
5. Writing in the vernacular: the Lais of Marie de France
6. Conclusion
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]