The Fortunes of King Arthur ed. by Norris J. Lacy
2007; Scriptoriun Press; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/art.2007.0041
ISSN1934-1539
Autores Tópico(s)Linguistics and language evolution
Resumo1OOARTHURIANA Kiening and Cornelia Herberichs discuss Fritz Lang's two part classic 1924 film of DieNibelungenlied; Heinrich Adolfdiscusses Richard Thorpe's 1952 film version of Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Christian Kiening offers a comparative reading of Ingmar Bergman's two cinematic medieval meditations, his 1957 film The Seventh Seal and his i960 film The Virgin Spring, in the volume's best essay, François Amy de la Bretcque discusses Anthony Mann's underappreciated 1961 film of El Cid; Ursula von Keitz discusses Andrei Tarkovski's 1996Andrei Rublev; Bruno Quast discusses Eric Rohmer's 1978 Perceval le Gallois; and Udo Friedrich's discusses Bertrand Tavernier's 1987 La Passion Béatrice. In part four of rhe volume, Elisabeth Bronfen discusses 'Monumentalität' in historical films. The volume concludes with a filmography, again heavily indebted (and cross-referenced) to those previously published in Amy de la Bretèque's L 'imaginaire médiéval dans le cinéma occidental and in my The Reel Middle Ages. Throughout, the volume offers a rich collection of film stills, all clearly reprinted, though in almost passport photo size. There are also complete indices offilm titles and names. KEVIN J. HARTY La Salle University NORRis j. lacy, ed., TheFortunes ofKingArthur. Arthurian Studies lxtv. Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 2005. Pp. xvi., 231. isbn: 1-84384-061-8. £45, $80. The topic ofthis collection ofthirteen essays is elastic, ranging from the 'vicissitudes' oftheArthurian legend from medieval to modern times as well as the metaphoric and mythological treatment ofthe king's fortunes (p. 1). The essays are divided into three flexible categories: 'History, Chronicle, and the Invention ofArthur,' 'Fortune and the King,' and 'The Fall and Rise ofArthur.' TheFortunesarose from aconference of the same title held at Pennsylvania State University, and the contributors are major scholars who write well and whose essays offer significant contributions. The only weakness in the collection derives from that very elasticity of topic, which leads to a certain inconsistency in the volume as a whole. Some essays offer sweeping overviews that could serve as introductions whole national traditions or specific texts within a tradition. For example, W.J.R Barron's 'Bruttene Deorling traces the English placement of the king within a dynastic pattern from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, while Caroline D. Eckhard's 'Reconsidering Malory' moves from Caxton's edition of 1485 to Sidney Lanier's of1950. Alan Lupak's analysis ofArthur's place at the center of the legend begins, appropriately, with Tennyson, cycles back to the king's decline in the sixteentheighteenth centuries, and then surveys his rise during modern times on both sides ofthe Atlantic. To say that these essays offer introductions is not to disparage their strengths: Lupak led me to revise the American section of my Arthurian syllabus, and the late W.J.R. Barron's reflections on an 'An Arthur for Every Age' continue to provoke thought about Arthur's legacy. Other essays treat more narrowed issues and are clearly addressed to scholars REVIEWS1Ol in the field. With such a focused approach, Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan offers a fascinating analysis of Elis Gruffydd's chronicle, in light of the sources available to that Welshman serving at Calais and steeped in the sixteenth-century debate about Arthur's historicity. In an equally fascinating argument on hybridism in late romances, focusing on the Chevalier du Papegau ('The Knight ofthe Parrot'), Jane H.M. Taylor traces a shift from the quest's emphasis on self-testing to the travel narrative's inclusion ofa narrator who participates in marvelous discoveries. Edward Donald Kennedy cogently demonstrates why Robert de Boron's Christianized version of the grail story had so little influence on English chroniclers other than Hardyng, while Christopher A. Snyder challenges the assumption that the Arthur of the Nennian Historia Brittonum is not a king. Two careful essays reach more tentative conclusions: NorrisJ. Lacy ties the king's lack ofemotion in Lancelot-Grail to his public role and veiled private life, while Siân Echard suggests that Geoffrey of Monmouth's cyclic view ofhistory owes more to the discomforting spin ofFortune's wheel than to God. Despite an eclectic sense of audience within the volume...
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