Mervelous Signals: Poetics and Sign Theory in the Middle Ages (Regents Studies in Medieval Culture) - Softcover

Vance, Eugene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803296088 ISBN 13: 9780803296084

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 1989

Synopsis

The investigation of language, of how (and what and why) signifiers signify, is prominent in modern critical work, but the questions being asked are by no means new. In Mervelous Signals, Eugene Vance asserts that "there is scarcely a term, practice, or concept in contemporary theory that does not have some rich antecedent in medieval thought." He goes on to illustrate the complexity and depth of medieval speculations about language and literature.

Vance's study of the link between the poetics and semiotics of the Middle Ages takes both a critical and a historical view as he brings today's insights to bear on the contemporary perspectives of such works as St. Augustine's Confessions, the Chanson de Roland, Chrétien's Yvain, Aucassin and Nicolette, Spenser's The Faerie Queen, and certain aspects of the works of Dante and Chaucer and of French medieval theater.

About this title

About the Author

Eugene Vance, a professor of comparative literature at Emory University, is the author of Reading the Song of Roland (1970) and From Topic to Tale: Logic and Narrative in the Middle Ages (1986).

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803296088
• ISBN 13: 9780803296084
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 365