
Allegory and the Poetic Self
First-Person Narration in Late Medieval Literature
Therise of an influential new family of poetry in the Middle Ages
Thisbook is the first collective examination of Late Medieval intimate first-personnarratives that blurred the lines between author, narrator, and protagonist andusually feature personification allegory and courtly love tropes, creating anexperimental new family of poetry. In this volume, contributors analyze why theallegorical first-person romance embedded itself in the vernacular literatureof Western Europe and remained popular for more than two centuries.
Theeditors identify and discuss three predominant forms within this family: debatepoetry, dream allegories, and autobiographies. Contributors offer textualanalyses of key works from late medieval German, French, Italian, and Iberianliterature, with discussion of developments in England, as well.
Allegoryand the Poetic Self offers asophisticated, theoretically current discussion of relevant literature. This exploration of medieval “I” narrativesoffers insights not just into the premodern period but also into Westernliterature’s subsequent traditions of self-analysis and identity craftingthrough storytelling.
“A stunning collection of essays onfirst-person allegorical narratives of the late Middle Ages that bringstogether an impressive group of scholars from different linguistictraditions.”—Katherine A. Brown, author of Boccaccio’sFabliaux: Medieval Short Stories and the Function of Reversal
“North American and Europeanscholars have come together in a constructive framework to underscore withinsightfulness and precision the emergence of the allegorical exploration oflove by means of self-referentiality, which facilitated the development of anew level of poetological reflections in literature.”—Albrecht Classen, editorof Toleration and Tolerance in Medieval European Literature