Talking Animals: Medieval Latin Beast Poetry, 750-1150

Title

en_US Talking Animals: Medieval Latin Beast Poetry, 750-1150

en_US Middle Ages Series

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US Jan M. Ziolkowski

Creator

en_US Ziolkowski, Jan M.

Date

2016-01-25T20:16:27Z

en_US 2000-06

en_US 1993

Date Available

2016-01-25T20:16:27Z

Date Issued

en_US 1993

Abstract

en_US I had the pleasure of hearing Jan Ziolkowski as keynote speaker at a meeting of The Beast Fable Society. This book underscores the strong impression I received then of an inquisitive mind, readiness to learn, and comprehensive study of a given subject. This book, in my impression, deals more with story content -- specifically talking animals -- and so does not focus specifically on fables. In fact, its purpose seems to be to track what happens when writers move beyond the well-known fable form. The book thus tracks their creative engagement of new and more expansive genres presenting talking animals. One of the few general rules Ziolkowski can establish is that these writers avoid having their new creations look like the old fables. Thus expressed morals are suppressed as we move into bestiary, beast epic, dialogue and other larger genres. Fable, it seems, was the carrier of a great deal of content through the middle ages and remains that. Latin writers, in particular, could count on their readers knowing a substantial body of fable literature. But fables, like other popular oral genres, were also much in people's mouths in the vernacular. Thirty-two helpful appendices here give translations of stories Ziolkowski refers to along the way. The earliest pages of this book raise the most engaging questions for me. Ziolkowski rightly distinguishes that the moral identifies a fable (18), but I fear he presumes that the moral must be stated. Secondly, I wonder if Perry would agree concerning the importance of animals in fable (19). Of course, Ziolkowski does not need to bother with non-animal-fables -- including the so-called Sybaritic human fables -- but I wonder whether one understands this genre correctly when one believes with John of Garland and Isidore that animals are paramount in fable (19). Particularly helpful to me is the subsequent section on the history of fables in the Middle Ages (19-32). Ziolkowski there brings together and makes sense of a great deal of information I have seen otherwise only in scattered and partial contexts.

Identifier

en_US 9780812231618

en_US 8347 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/83579

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US University of Pennsylvania Press

en_US Philadelphia, PA

Subject

en_US PA8065.A54 Z55 1993

en_US Secondary

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole