Space, gender, and memory in Middle English romance : architectures of wonder in Melusine /

TitleSpace, gender, and memory in Middle English romance : architectures of wonder in Melusine /
Publication TypeBook
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsJan,, author. Shaw
Series TitleThe new Middle Ages
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
CityNew York, NY
ISBN Number978-1-137-45046-3
Abstract

This book offers a much-needed consideration of Melusine within medieval and contemporary theories of space, memory, and gender. The Middle English Melusine offers a particularly rich source for such a study, as it presents the story of a powerful fairy/human woman who desires a full human life-and death-within a literary tradition that is more friendly to women's agency than its continental counterparts. After establishing a "textual habitus of wonder," Jan Shaw explores the tale in relation to a range of Middle English traditions including love and marriage, the spatial practices of women, the operation of individual and collective memory, and the legacies of patrimony. Melusine emerges as a complex figure, representing a multifaceted feminine subject that furthers our understanding of Middle English women's sense of self in the world.

Short TitleSpace, gender, and memory in Middle English romance