Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Christianity and Romance

Share it Please

Northrop Frye described the genre of Romance as the "Christan genre". In writing my paper, I plan to take this theory into practice, while analyzing the Christ-like imagery in The Winter's Tale as well as in the French Arthurian Romance, The Knight of the Lion. Both stories use the archetype of this Christ-figure to demonstrate the importance of Christianity in the genre. Northrop Frye also wrote an interesting essay on this, which is in parenthesis here. (http://northropfrye-theanatomyofcriticism.blogspot.com/2009/02/third-essay-archetypal-criticism-theory.html)

This topic will be interesting because I find the Christian influence on Romances intriguing and The Knight of the Lion is one of my favorite texts. The Winter's Tale has this incredible ressurection scene, which will only more fully demonstrate the Christian aspect of these Romances. On Slack, when I asked about my topic, I was given the advice to make sure I don't get too jumbled with all the ideas, which is extremely fair advice. That is why I think I will focus less on "Christianity" as a whole in Romances, and more on these Christ figures that we find in the texts. I will say that this is a little sad for me because I love the usage of religious language used for romantic love that is often found in Romances, but I think that the advice is great because adding the language as well as the analysis of these figures would lead to a confusing paper. 

For both topics, I have found some articles that will help jump start my research. I found Grace and Salvation in Chretien de Troyes, which is a French essay on the Lion, who is the Christ-figure of the story.If you read French, this is a great read. Another text was titled Shakespearean Resurrection: The Art of Almost Raising the Dead, which was on the topic of Shakespearean resurrections (or attempts), but the part on Hermione is awesome. I would link them, but I had to get an interlibrary loan, so the link would not really take you anywhere great.

My only worry for this is really that anytime I search Hermione, tons of Harry Potter stuff comes up and it is kind of annoying. But, I'm really excited for this!


4 comments:

  1. I think you have a great topic, and I like how you are going to talk about Christianity in the genre of romance as a whole as well as in Shakespeare, and as long as you stay focused I think it will be awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree. This is a cool topic, and I think wanting to focus on Christ-figures will definitely help you have a more central theme!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am definitely intrigued. How are you going to explain the lack of explicit reference to Christianity and reliance on Pagan gods in The Winter's Tale? Does this support your argument, or is it trivial?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like your topic! I think you'll be able to find your ideas in most, if not all, the Shakespearian plays.

    ReplyDelete

Blogroll

About