Full metadata
Title
Sensing Death: Variations in the Sensorium of the Old Norse, Anglo-French, and Middle English Tristans
Description
This thesis investigates the description of sensation in the scenes immediately before, during, and following the death of Tristan in variations in the Tristan cycle from the 12th through the 15th centuries. Using a sensory studies approach, the project considers these scenes as they are translated and transmitted from Thomas de Bretagne’s Tristan to the Old Norse Tristrams saga ok Ísöndar and Saga af Tristram ok Ísodd and into Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, the last, great medieval treatment of the Tristan story. The scenes are understood in the context of the texts’ sensoria as defined by their cultural and historical contexts and the texts’ underpinning in philosophical and theological thought on the senses. The thesis project argues that the specific cultural preferences and usages of the senses can be made apparent through the comparison of Thomas’s Tristan, the Norse translations, and Malory’s text. Taken together, they show the importance of considering medieval translation when comparing the appearance of the senses in written artefacts from the Middle Ages. The sensory engagement with texts is deeply tied to the making of meaning and ethics in medieval literary works. The differences in how the senses are prioritized and framed suggest a larger variance within European Christian philosophical and theological thought on the senses and provide a potential framework for exploring this phenomenon in other medieval literary cycles.
Date Created
2021
Contributors
- Rebe, Tristan J (Author)
- Newhauser, Richard G (Thesis advisor)
- Bjork, Robert (Committee member)
- Cruse, Markus (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Topical Subject
Resource Type
Extent
105 pages
Language
eng
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Primary Member of
Peer-reviewed
No
Open Access
No
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.161312
Level of coding
minimal
Cataloging Standards
Note
Partial requirement for: M.A., Arizona State University, 2021
Field of study: English
System Created
- 2021-11-16 12:06:48
System Modified
- 2021-11-30 12:51:28
- 2 years 11 months ago
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