Poetic Alchemy: the Rise of Romance from a Persian Perspective
Dedicated to Julie Scott Meisami, 1937–2021
In: Medieval EncountersSearch for other papers by Cameron Cross in
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Abstract
The eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed either the rise or revival of long-form amorous narratives in at least four courtly language traditions across the southwestern flank of Eurasia: Persian, Georgian, Greek, and French. This coeval occurrence of the “rise of romance” offers fruitful grounds for considering broad literary-historical questions about genre, poetics, and interconnectivity in a comparative fashion. The aim of this article is to give an account of this phenomenon in the early Persian context, with special attention to the role of poetry in transforming popular tales into elite literature. Understanding the implications of this practice may shed some light on possible factors contributing to the romance’s (re-)emergence in other twelfth-century literary traditions. As a coda, this article suggests twelfth-century Anatolia and Syria as significant contact zones where all four of the courtly languages mentioned above would have had some opportunity to interact.
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Poetic Alchemy: the Rise of Romance from a Persian Perspective
Dedicated to Julie Scott Meisami, 1937–2021
In: Medieval EncountersSearch for other papers by Cameron Cross in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
The eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed either the rise or revival of long-form amorous narratives in at least four courtly language traditions across the southwestern flank of Eurasia: Persian, Georgian, Greek, and French. This coeval occurrence of the “rise of romance” offers fruitful grounds for considering broad literary-historical questions about genre, poetics, and interconnectivity in a comparative fashion. The aim of this article is to give an account of this phenomenon in the early Persian context, with special attention to the role of poetry in transforming popular tales into elite literature. Understanding the implications of this practice may shed some light on possible factors contributing to the romance’s (re-)emergence in other twelfth-century literary traditions. As a coda, this article suggests twelfth-century Anatolia and Syria as significant contact zones where all four of the courtly languages mentioned above would have had some opportunity to interact.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 506 | 506 | 64 |
| Full Text Views | 27 | 27 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 62 | 62 | 0 |
