Job, Boethius, and Epic Truth

Ann W. Astell

Published by Cornell University Press 1994

Job, Boethius, and Epic Truth

Ann W. Astell
Funded by: National Endowment for the Humanities Open Book Program

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501733253

Overview
Contents

About this book

Calling into question the common assumption that the Middle Ages produced no secondary epics, Ann W. Astell here revises a key chapter in literary history. She examines the connections between the Book of Job and Boethius' s Consolation of Philosophy—texts closely associated with each other in the minds of medieval readers and writers—and demonstrates that these two works served as a conduit for the tradition of heroic poetry from antiquity through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. As she traces the complex influences of classical and biblical texts on vernacular literature, Astell offers provocative readings of works by Dante, Chaucer, Spenser, Malory, Milton, and many others.

Astell looks at the relationship between the historical reception of the epic and successive imitative forms, showing how Boethius's Consolation and Johan biblical commentaries echo the allegorical treatment of" epic truth" in the poems of Homer and Virgil, and how in turn many works classified as "romance" take Job and Boethius as their models. She considers the influences of Job and Boethius on hagiographic romance, as exemplified by the stories of Eustace, Custance, and Griselda; on the amatory romances of Abelard and Heloise, Dante and Beatrice, and Troilus and Criseyde; and on the chivalric romances of Martin of Tours, Galahad, Lancelot, and Redcrosse. Finally, she explores an encyclopedic array of interpretations of Job and Boethius in Milton's Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.

Author / Editor information

Ann W. Astell is Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of six books, most recently Eating Beauty: The Eucharist and the Spiritual Arts of the Middle Ages.

Reviews

Though present-day critics, who concentrate on form, generally find the epic discontinuous in the Middle Ages, Astell argues that the genre persisted as the biblical book of Job and Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy were imitated and alluded to as examples throughout the period.... The scholarship is prodigious, the argument convincing, and the Christian stance congenial to the subject. Highly recommended.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
1. Allegories of Logos and Eros Open Access Download PDF	21
2. Boethius and Epic Truth Open Access Download PDF	41
3. Job and Heroic Virtue Open Access Download PDF	70
4. Hagiographic Romance Open Access Download PDF	97
5. Boethian Lovers Open Access Download PDF	127
6. Ghostly Chivalry Open Access Download PDF	159
7. The Miltonic Trilogy Open Access Download PDF	185
Conclusion Open Access Download PDF	211
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	217
Index Open Access Download PDF	235

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 258
Keywords: Literary Studies; Medieval & Renaissance Studies

eBook

Published: March 15, 2019
ISBN: 9781501733253