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The Flight of Icarus: Artisan Autobiography in Early Modern Europe

The Flight of Icarus: Artisan Autobiography in Early Modern Europe COMPARATIVE LITERATURE /180 themselves “as a way to survive” (p. 51). The perceived dearth of material, a commonplace among writers of the late Middle Ages, is a continuing thread. Chapter 4, “The Sadness When All Has Been Said,” elaborates on the theme that authors felt they had nothing original to write about, a “crisis of subject matter” (p. 53) expressed in recurring metaphors such as the image of gleaning. Late-medieval authors did write, however, prodigiously and prolifically, as a glance at the appropriate shelves of any research library or manuscript collection will prove. How, then, did they find material? Cerquiglini-Toulet reminds us that in the wake of the Romance of the Rose the literature of the fourteenth century took on a self-reflexive character, often becoming writing about the act of writing itself. She also demonstrates that by Froissart’s day impoverished poets made poetry their currency, filling purses and coffers with texts as a medium of exchange. The fourteenth-century attitude towards subject matter and the production of books often made use of gendered tropes such as incarnation and birthing, or fabrication and organs of speech. The focus on lexicon and metaphor continues in chapter 5, “Matter for Poets,” the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

The Flight of Icarus: Artisan Autobiography in Early Modern Europe

Comparative Literature , Volume 52 (2) – Jan 1, 2000

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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2000 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/-52-2-184
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE /180 themselves “as a way to survive” (p. 51). The perceived dearth of material, a commonplace among writers of the late Middle Ages, is a continuing thread. Chapter 4, “The Sadness When All Has Been Said,” elaborates on the theme that authors felt they had nothing original to write about, a “crisis of subject matter” (p. 53) expressed in recurring metaphors such as the image of gleaning. Late-medieval authors did write, however, prodigiously and prolifically, as a glance at the appropriate shelves of any research library or manuscript collection will prove. How, then, did they find material? Cerquiglini-Toulet reminds us that in the wake of the Romance of the Rose the literature of the fourteenth century took on a self-reflexive character, often becoming writing about the act of writing itself. She also demonstrates that by Froissart’s day impoverished poets made poetry their currency, filling purses and coffers with texts as a medium of exchange. The fourteenth-century attitude towards subject matter and the production of books often made use of gendered tropes such as incarnation and birthing, or fabrication and organs of speech. The focus on lexicon and metaphor continues in chapter 5, “Matter for Poets,” the

Journal

Comparative LiteratureDuke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2000

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