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Representing the Saracen : identity, race and religious difference in medieval French and Occitan literature
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Turner, Victoria C. (2013) Representing the Saracen : identity, race and religious difference in medieval French and Occitan literature. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2691046~S1
Abstract
This thesis focuses upon literary representations of a familiar yet imprecise figure: the medieval Saracen. Through close analysis of a broad corpus of texts ranging from roughly 1150 to 1350, including epic, romance and miracle tales and treating both Old French and Occitan materials, it highlights the impossibility of generalising about the Saracen and his role. It argues instead that the malleability of Saracen identity was often acknowledged and even exploited in literature. A study of the ways in which such a figure may be defined is used to bring race into dialogue with other aspects of identity such as gender, and to explore in particular the relationship between religion and race. Drawing upon theories of performativity and cross-dressing, Lacanian logical time, communitas in religious experience, and lastly of speech acts, it argues that medieval racial identity – as seen through the body, belief and speech of the Saracen – was far from universally understood and could be constructed by narrative processes and stylistic technique as well as social conventions.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Saracens in literature, French literature -- To 1500, Occitan literature -- To 1500, Difference (Philosophy) in literature, Race in literature | ||||
Official Date: | February 2013 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of French Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Campbell, Emma, 1977-; Paterson, Linda M. | ||||
Extent: | vi, 344 leaves. | ||||
Language: | eng |
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