Ebook: Middle English Romance and the Craft of Memory

An examination of the depiction and function of memory in a variety of romances, including 'Troilus and Criseyde' and 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'. In Middle English romances many memories are created, stored, forgotten, and rediscovered by both the characters and audience; such memory work is not, however, either simple or obvious. This study examines the ways in which recollection is achieved and sustained through physical, cognitive, and interpretative challenges. It uses examples such as 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', 'Sir Orfeo', and 'Emaré', alongside romances by Chaucer and Malory,to investigate the genre's reliance on individual and collective memorial processes. The author argues that a tale's objects, places, dreams, discoveries, disguises, prophecies, and dramatic ironies influence that romance's essential memory work, which relies as much on creativity as it does accuracy. He also explores the imaginative crafts of memory that are employed by romances themselves.