The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity Through the Middle AgesAncient and medieval labyrinths embody paradox, according to Penelope Reed Doob. Their structure allows a double perspective--the baffling, fragmented prospect confronting the maze-treader within, and the comprehensive vision available to those without. Mazes simultaneously assert order and chaos, artistry and confusion, articulated clarity and bewildering complexity, perfected pattern and hesitant process. In this handsomely illustrated book, Doob reconstructs from a variety of literary and visual sources the idea of the labyrinth from the classical period through the Middle Ages. Doob first examines several complementary traditions of the maze topos, showing how ancient historical and geographical writings generate metaphors in which the labyrinth signifies admirable complexity, while poetic texts tend to suggest that the labyrinth is a sign of moral duplicity. She then describes two common models of the labyrinth and explores their formal implications: the unicursal model, with no false turnings, found almost universally in the visual arts; and the multicursal model, with blind alleys and dead ends, characteristic of literary texts. This paradigmatic clash between the labyrinths of art and of literature becomes a key to the metaphorical potential of the maze, as Doob's examination of a vast array of materials from the classical period through the Middle Ages suggests. She concludes with linked readings of four "labyrinths of words": Virgil's Aeneid, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Chaucer's House of Fame, each of which plays with and transforms received ideas of the labyrinth as well as reflecting and responding to aspects of the texts that influenced it. Doob not only provides fresh theoretical and historical perspectives on the labyrinth tradition, but also portrays a complex medieval aesthetic that helps us to approach structurally elaborate early works. Readers in such fields as Classical literature, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, comparative literature, literary theory, art history, and intellectual history will welcome this wide-ranging and illuminating book. ; Ancient and medieval labyrinths embody paradox, according to Penelope Reed Doob. Their structure allows a double perspective--the baffling, fragmented prospect confronting the maze-treader within, and the comprehensive vision available to those without. Mazes simultaneously assert order and chaos, artistry and confusion, articulated clarity and bewildering complexity, perfected pattern and hesitant process. In this handsomely illustrated book, Doob reconstructs from a variety of literary and visual sources the idea of the labyrinth from the classical period through the Middle Ages. Doob first examines several complementary traditions of the maze topos, showing how ancient historical and geographical writings generate metaphors in which the labyrinth signifies admirable complexity, while poetic texts tend to suggest that the labyrinth is a sign of moral duplicity. She then describes two common models of the labyrinth and explores their formal implications: the unicursal model, with no false turnings, found almost universally in the visual arts; and the multicursal model, with blind alleys and dead ends, characteristic of literary texts. This paradigmatic clash between the labyrinths of art and of literature becomes a key to the metaphorical potential of the maze, as Doob's examination of a vast array of materials from the classical period through the Middle Ages suggests. She concludes with linked readings of four "labyrinths of words": Virgil's Aeneid, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy, Dante's Divine Comedy, and Chaucer's House of Fame, each of which plays with and transforms received ideas of the labyrinth as well as reflecting and responding to aspects of the texts that influenced it. Doob not only provides fresh theoretical and historical perspectives on the labyrinth tradition, but also portrays a complex medieval aesthetic that helps us to approach structurally elaborate early works. Readers in such fields as Classical literature, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, comparative literature, literary theory, art history, and intellectual history will welcome this wide-ranging and illuminating book. |
Contents
PART | 15 |
Two Paradigms | 39 |
A Taxonomy of Metaphorical Labyrinths | 64 |
Copyright | |
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Aeneas Aeneas's Aeneid aesthetic ambages ambiguous architect Ariadne artistic artistry Boccaccio Boethius Boethius's Book cathedral chaos chap Chapter Chaucer choice Christ Christ-Theseus Christian circles circuitous circular classical and medieval Comedy commentary complex confusion Consolation Consolation of Philosophy Corbaccio cosmic cosmos Cretan Cretan labyrinth Cretan myth Daedalian Daedalus Daedalus's dance Dante Dante's difficult discussion divine Divine Comedy domus dream Egyptian labyrinth error escape Geoffrey Geoffrey's goal harrowing of hell hell House of Fame human idea impenetrable inextricable interlace interpretation Kern labor laborintus laby labyrinthine literary literature manuscript maze-walker maze's metaphorical Middle Ages Minos Minotaur moral multicursal labyrinth multicursal maze narrative Ovid paradise Pasiphae path pattern perspective Philosophy plate Pliny poem poet poetic poetry Prudentius readers retracing rinth rinthine Saint significance structure suggests texts Theseus thread tion tradition trans transcendent turf-mazes unicursal unicursal maze University Press Virgil vision visual wanderer writers