Old French Narrative Cycles

This is a study of four colossal medieval works - the Cycle deGuillaume d'Orange the Vulgate Cycle the Prose Tristan and the Roman de Renart - which are normally considered separately. By placing them side-by-side for analysis Luke Sunderland is able to argue for an aesthetic of cyclicity that cuts across genre. He combines detailed readings of the narrative infrastructure of each cycle with attention to the shifts and transformations that come withsuccessive acts of rewriting. Old French Narrative Cycles focuses in particular on revisions and controversies around heroic figures arguing that competition between alternative heroes within these texts makes them a discourse onheroism. Using a theoretical framework deriving from Lacanianpsychoanalysis the study reveals anxieties surrounding the hero'srelationship to the good: the hero oscillates between support formoral ideals and subversive assertions of freedom that can lead toevil and death. Ultimately it is contended that the instability ofthe hero as conduit for morality produces textual confusion andgenerates the myriad differing versions of these vast and perplexingworks.