Prophecy and the Quest for the Holy Grail: Critiquing Knowledge in the Vulgate Cycle
This study reconsiders the Vulgate Cycle, and the functional interrelation of prophecy and epistemological critique in thirteenth-century Grail literature: no mere prediction, prophecy marks a critical strategy by which the nature and limits of knowledge are put into systematic question. By examining the critical function of such language, the study demonstrates the political significance of the Vulgate Cycle for the thirteenth-century Church: in tracing the various means by which authority...
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This study reconsiders the Vulgate Cycle, and the functional interrelation of prophecy and epistemological critique in thirteenth-century Grail literature: no mere prediction, prophecy marks a critical strategy by which the nature and limits of knowledge are put into systematic question. By examining the critical function of such language, the study demonstrates the political significance of the Vulgate Cycle for the thirteenth-century Church: in tracing the various means by which authority is disclosed in this literature, it elaborates the genealogical structure of prophetic knowledge, and the overly subversive logic by which such insight is made specific to the clergy. By reformulating the nature of prophecy in the cycle, and suggesting the political stakes of such language, it lays the groundwork for future analysis of medieval Grail literature and its cultural legacies.BooknewsKarczewska (French lit., Harvard) examines the historical, theoretical, and literary importance of the Grail prophecies as told in the 13th century Old French Grail legends known as the Vulgate Cycle. Karczewska analyzes the semiotics of Grail prophecy, the logic of Christian history, specular writing, knowledge and identity in the Song of Joseph, magic, wonder, and knowledge of god, and the concepts of sacred time and space. Extensive notes provide translations from the Old French and other information. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
PrefaceTheorizing the Sacred: The Semiotics of Grail ProphecyTelling the News: The Logic of Christian History3The Crack in the Mirror of God: Specular Writing and the Veil of the Temple9The Logic of Promise and Reading Yes23The Wasteland, the Quest, and the Road to God35The Vicars of Christ: Tradition, Translation, and the Three Grail TablesGenealogies of the Sacred: Knowledge and Identity in the Song of Joseph49The Play's the Thing: Laughter and the Ludic(rous) in Lestoire de Merlin65Amazing Grace: Magic, Wonder, and Knowledge of God77The Darker Gabriels: Scrift, Script, and the Scene of Reading95Sometime World Pass Me By Again: Sacred Time(s) and Space(s)Visions by Night: Dreams, Illusions, and Other Realities119A(na)mnesia and the Legacies of the Grave137The Eighth Day of Creation: Arriving at Sarras, or Galahad Through the Looking Glass155Conclusion169Notes173Bibliography231Index269
\ BooknewsKarczewska (French lit., Harvard) examines the historical, theoretical, and literary importance of the Grail prophecies as told in the 13th century Old French Grail legends known as the Vulgate Cycle. Karczewska analyzes the semiotics of Grail prophecy, the logic of Christian history, specular writing, knowledge and identity in the Song of Joseph, magic, wonder, and knowledge of god, and the concepts of sacred time and space. Extensive notes provide translations from the Old French and other information. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.\ \
