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

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. Preface ix CHAPTER I. Augustine's 'Confessions' and the Poetics of the Law 1 CHAPTER 2. Saint Augustine: Language as Temporality 34 CHAPTER 3. Roland and Charlemagne: The Remembering Voices and the Crypt 5i CHAPTER 4. The Châtelain de Coucy: Enunciation and Story in Trouvère Lyric 86 CHAPTER 5. Chrétien's 'Yvain' and the Ideologies of Change and Exchange 111 CHAPTER 6. 'Aucassin et Nicolette' and the Poetics of Discourse 152 CHAPTER 7 The Apple as Feather: Toward a Poetics of Dialogue in Early French Medieval Theater 184 CHAPTER 8. The Differing Seed: Dante's Brunetto Latini 230 CHAPTER 9. Mervelous Signals: Sign Theory and the Politics of Metaphor in Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde' 256 CHAPTER 10. Edmund Spenser, Troy, and the Humanist Ideology of Translation 311 Index 353 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. This title illustrates the complexity and depth of medieval speculations about language and literature. Eugene Vance. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.