Massimiliano Bampi & Carolyne Larrington 
A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre [PDF ebook] 

A comprehensive guide to a crucial aspect of Old Norse literature.


We cannot read literary works without making use of the concept of genre. In Old Norse studies, genre has been central to the categorisation, evaluation and understanding of medieval prose and poetry alike; yet its definition hasbeen elusive and its implications often left unexplored.

This volume opens up fundamental questions about Old Norse genre in theory and in practice. It offers an extensive range of theoretical approaches, investigating and critiquing current terms and situating its arguments within early Scandinavian and Icelandic oral-literary and manuscript contexts. It maps the ways in which genre and form engage with key thematic areas within the literary corpus, noting the different kinds of impact upon the genre system brought about by conversion to Christianity, the gradual adoption of European literary models, and social and cultural changes occurring in Scandinavian society. A case-study section probes both prototypical and hard-to-define cases, demonstrating the challenges that actual texts pose to genre theory in terms of hybridity, evolution and innovation. With an annotated taxonomy of Old Norse genres andan extensive bibliography, it is an indispensable resource for contemporary Old Norse-Icelandic literary studies.


MASSIMILIANO BAMPI is Associate Professor of Germanic Philology at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; CAROLYNE LARRINGTON is Professor of Medieval European Literature at Oxford University and Official Fellow in Medieval English Literature at St John’s College, Oxford; SIF RIKHARDSDOTTIR is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Iceland and Vice-Chair of the Institute for Research in Literature and Visual Arts.


Contributors: Massimiliano Bampi, Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, Jürg Glauser, Erin Goeres, Stefanie Gropper, Pernille Hermann, Dale Kedwards, Carolyne Larrington, Mikael Males, Hans Jacob Orning, Russell Poole, Judy Quinn, Sif Rikhardsdottir, Lukas Rösli, Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, Brittany Schorn, Torfi H Tulinius, Kevin Wanner.

Mục lục

Introduction – Massimiliano Bampi and Sif Rikhardsdottir

Genre – Massimiliano Bampi

Hybridity – Sif Rikhardsdottir

Terminology – Lukas Rösli

Form – Mikael Males

Orality, Textuality and Performance – Judy Quinn

Manuscripts and Codicology – Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir

The Body Politic – Hans Jacob Orning

Geography – Dale Kedwards

Time and Space – Torfi H. Tulinius

Memory – Pernille Hermann

The Human Condition – Stefanie Gropper

God(s) – Carolyne Larrington

Wisdom – Brittany Schorn

Skaldic poetry – Case study: The Poetry of Torf-Einarr Rognvaldsson of Orkney – Erin Goeres

Eddic poetry – Case study: Sólarljóð – Carolyne Larrington

Þættir – Case study: Stjörnu-Odda draumr – Elizabeth Ashman Rowe

Íslendingasogur – Case study: Vatnsdæla saga – Russell Poole

Byskupasögur and heilagra manna sögur – Case study – Kevin J. Wanner

Romance – Case Study – Jürg Glauser

Annotated Taxonomy of Genres

Giới thiệu về tác giả

Sif Rikhardsdottir is Professor and Chair of Comparative Literature at the University of Iceland.