|
Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Poetry & poets
|
Buy Now
Skaldic Verse and the Poetics of Saga Narrative (Hardcover, New)
Loot Price: R4,978
Discovery Miles 49 780
|
|
|
Skaldic Verse and the Poetics of Saga Narrative (Hardcover, New)
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
|
Skaldic Verse and the Poetics of Saga Narrative is a study of the
varying relationships between verse and prose in a series of Old
Norse-Icelandic saga narratives. It shows how the interplay of
skaldic verse, with its metrical intricacy and cryptic diction, and
saga prose, with its habitual spare clarity, can be used to achieve
a wide variety of sophisticated stylistic and psychological
effects. In sagas, there is a fundamental distinction between
verses which are ostensibly quoted to corroborate what is stated in
the narrative, and verses which are presented as the speech of
characters in the saga. Corroborative verses are typical of, but
not confined to, historical writings, the verses acting as a
footnote to the narrative. Dialogue verses, with their illusion
that saga characters break into verse at crucial points in the
story, belong to the realm of fiction. This study, which focuses on
historical writings such as Agrip and Heimskringla, and three of
the major family sagas, Eyrbyggja saga, Gisla saga and Grettis
saga, shows that a close reading of the prosimetrum in the
narrative can be used to chart the complex and delicate boundaries
between history and fiction in the sagas. When skaldic stanzas are
presented as the dialogue of saga characters, the characteristic
naturalism of these narratives is breached. But some saga authors,
as this book shows, extend still further the expressiveness of saga
narrative, presenting skaldic stanzas as the soliloquies of saga
characters. This technique enables the direct articulation of
emotion, and hence dramatic focalization of the narrative and the
creation of psychological climaxes. As an epilogue, Heather
O'Donoghue considers the absence ofsuch effects in Hrafnkels
saga--a highly literary narrative without verses.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
You might also like..
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
