It has long been a commonplace of literary history that in the twelfth century, first in the French-speaking territories controlled by the Anglo-Norman and Capetian ruling families, and especially within the milieu of the English royal court, antique and chivalric romances appear simultaneously with a new kind of historical chronicle driven by contemporary affairs. In short order, historiography and romance, whether written in Latin or in the vernaculars, became culturally dominant kinds of narrative expression throughout the rest of Europe.

Why did this happen? Why did these two new kinds of writing appear simultaneously and spread so rapidly within the same cultural milieu? In Reality Fictions, Robert M. Stein argues that the emergence of historiography and romance was linked to large-scale transformations in the structure of power attendant on Capetian and Anglo-Norman state-making. He maintains that an understanding of the changes in the twelfth-century literary constellation requires us to consider the structure of literary production as a whole and in its relation to the world from which it emerges and to which it responds. Stein argues that romance and history writing grew out of the same cultural need and were intended to perform the same cultural tasks, thus determining their simultaneous appearance, rapid development, and formal affinities.

In the rearrangements of power that were part of the state-making designs of Capetian and Anglo-Norman ruling families, new imaginative and conceptual entities became matters demanding serious representation, often in new discursive configurations, and often for the first time-the boundaries between self and other, the experience of eros, the differentiation of public from private life all took on new contours. A brilliant study of literary innovation, Reality Fictions provides a new understanding of the large variety of overlapping institutional, epistemological, and practical structures of power that the European Middle Ages presents to us and the ways that dislocations and transformations of power are registered in the consciousness of those who live through them.

About the Author

Robert M. Stein is professor of language and literature at Purchase College, State University of New York, and adjunct professor of English and comparative literature, Columbia University.

Reviews

"This book makes the claim that the changes in power relationships in northwestern Europe led to a need for new representations of that power, in turn creating new genres: a sort of historical writing that focused on contemporary history, the romance, and a reconfigured epic." -American Historical Review

"Reality Fictions concerns boundaries between genres, concepts of history and epistemology, eternal realities and worldly ones, one level of truth and another, as conceived of by eleventh- and twelfth-century writers and by present-day scholars. Stein addresses the fluid relationships between power and makers of texts on religion, history, politics and romance; opening up this array of historical and theoretical approaches for discussion in a single book is an important service to medievalists; situating his new work therein is a major achievement." -Journal of Medieval Latin

"Stein explains how post-Norman Conquest texts of the 12th century reflect social issues regarding kingship and power. Basing his discussion on texts from 'border' areas that were sites of political unrest, the author begins with the writings of Gerard I, bishop of Cambria, exploring how his historical chronicles were used as political tools. . . Theoretically sophisticated and certain to be a groundbreaking work in Old French studies, this volume includes copious notes. Summing Up: Essential." -Choice

"There is no doubt that Stein can write well and engagingly, knows his texts thoroughly, and is able to argue his point clearly and convincingly." -Journal of English and Germanic Philology

"Lucid, vivid, consistently intelligent, and deeply informed in documentary and literary sources, Reality Fictions explains why writing the real mattered to diverse eleventh- and twelfth-century people. Stein shows how history, hagiography, epic, and romance developed together, constituting something of a cultural breakthrough for medieval Europe, which was built on a powerful social, political, and psychological platform." -The Historian

"It is a tribute to this provocative and elegant study that it raises as many questions as it answers. Whether dealing with texts as familiar as Marie de France's Guigemar or as unfamiliar as the Latin life of St. Aubert, which remains untranslated and is available only in the eighteenth-century edition of the Bollandists, Stein's readings are subtle, persuasive, and-deliberately and commendably-inconclusive. . . offers the most convincing and complex account to date of the relation between epic, romance, and history in the long twelfth century." -Speculum

"Reality Fiction's greatest strength lies in the intriguing challenges it presents both to medievalists and theorists of nationalism to re-consider ways in which pre-modern peoples imagined political communities." -Arturiana

"This book is an exploration of the relationship between literary innovation and changing socio-political structures. Its four chapters cover the key literary genres of the Middle Ages: hagiography, historiography, romance, and epic, with four extended 'case studies' discussed in the book's four chapters. . . . It will certainly be a classic, and should be read by medievalists and non-medievalists, literary critics, and historians alike." -Medium Aevum

"This is one of the scholarly works I have most enjoyed reading in the last several years. Part of my pleasure stems, of course, from my own interests and tastes-which seem to overlap in large part with those of the book's author-but the larger part stems from the author's intelligence, erudition, his choice of texts to be studied, and the quality of his thinking and writing. The chronological, geographical, and cultural coherence of the texts lends the book real historical weight-these texts deserve to be studied together because they belong together-while the variety of languages, styles, and genres in which they are written provides a series of thought-provoking changes of perspective. This is a particularly rewarding study." -Encomia

"Richly grounded in literary theory, Stein is never its captive; he knows when and how to allow the written text its rejoinder as theory's necessary corrective. Severe with unconsidered teleologies, always deeply contexted, this fine book abounds in conceptual payoffs. Among my revisionary favorites: his aptly titled (and wittily inverted) concluding chapter, 'From Romance to Epic.'" -Paul Strohm, Anna S. Garbedian Professor of Humanities, Columbia University

Book Information
ISBN 9780268041205
Author Robert M. Stein
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint University of Notre Dame Press
Publisher University of Notre Dame Press
Weight(grams) 413g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 16mm