Bibliography

Eva von
Contzen

4 publications between 2015 and 2018 indexed

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Works authored

The Scottish legendary: towards a poetics of hagiographic narration

Contzen, Eva von, The Scottish legendary: towards a poetics of hagiographic narration, Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.

Introduction: The Scottish Legendary and narrative art; 1. Towards a narrative poetics of medieval saints' lives; 2. Teacher and poet: the narrator in the Scottish Legendary; 3. Words and deeds: character depiction and direct discourse; 4. Putting the saint in perspective: ideology and hagiographic narration; 5. Saintly interiority: narrating conscience and consciousness; 6. The past, a foreign country: time, space and the Scottishness of the Scottish Legendary; Conclusion: A poetics of hagiographic narration; Appendix: The Scottish Legendary: authorship, dialect, and arrangement; Bibliography; Index.

abstract:

This is the first book-length study of the Scottish Legendary of the late fourteenth century. The only extant collection of saints' lives in the vernacular from medieval Scotland, the work 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. This study scrutinises the implications of the Scottish poet's narrative strategies with respect to the Scottishness of the Legendary and its overall place in the hagiographic landscape of late medieval Britain.

Introduction: The Scottish Legendary and narrative art; 1. Towards a narrative poetics of medieval saints' lives; 2. Teacher and poet: the narrator in the Scottish Legendary; 3. Words and deeds: character depiction and direct discourse; 4. Putting the saint in perspective: ideology and hagiographic narration; 5. Saintly interiority: narrating conscience and consciousness; 6. The past, a foreign country: time, space and the Scottishness of the Scottish Legendary; Conclusion: A poetics of hagiographic narration; Appendix: The Scottish Legendary: authorship, dialect, and arrangement; Bibliography; Index.

abstract:

This is the first book-length study of the Scottish Legendary of the late fourteenth century. The only extant collection of saints' lives in the vernacular from medieval Scotland, the work 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. This study scrutinises the implications of the Scottish poet's narrative strategies with respect to the Scottishness of the Legendary and its overall place in the hagiographic landscape of late medieval Britain.

Works edited

Narratologie und mittelalterliches Erzählen: Autor, Erzähler, Perspektive, Zeit und Raum

Contzen, Eva von, and Florian Kragl (eds), Narratologie und mittelalterliches Erzählen: Autor, Erzähler, Perspektive, Zeit und Raum, Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte, 7, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018.

Sanctity as literature in late medieval Britain

Contzen, Eva von, and Anke Bernau (eds), Sanctity as literature in late medieval Britain, Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015.

Contributions to edited collections or authored works

Narrating vernacular sanctity: the Scottish legendary a challenge to the ‘literary turn’ in fifteenth-century hagiography

Contzen, Eva von, “Narrating vernacular sanctity: the Scottish legendary a challenge to the ‘literary turn’ in fifteenth-century hagiography”, in: Eva von Contzen, and Anke Bernau (eds), Sanctity as literature in late medieval Britain, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015. 172–190.