The Medieval Opus: Imitation, Rewriting and Transmission in the French Tradition

The Medieval Opus is a broad but detailed study of the art of imitation as rewriting that was practiced in medieval French texts and in texts in other languages influenced by French models. It contains the proceedings of a symposium on this topic. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students of medieval French as well as other medieval literatures influenced by French models. The range of texts is broad: from epic to romance and from lyric to late medieval lyrico-narrative genres. The authors teach in a number of countries in Europe and North America, and they represent a variety of approaches, ages, and critical perspectives on medieval rewriting. Two major concepts inform the papers: the bridge work and the specimen text. The bridge work (Tony Hunt's term) refers here two works that have identifiable links to others and that, by those links, reveals something of the art of writing for both works. Specimen texts are works representative of the art of imitation illustrated by the bridge works. The proceedings move beyond the analysis of a general art of composition to investigate original rewriting in specific works that serve as specimen texts. The goal of the proceedings has been to appreciate originality within the framework of the medieval art of literary writing.