Inheriting the Grail: Genealogy, Textuality, History
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Special Session
Organizer Name
Lucas Wood
Organizer Affiliation
Durham Univ.
Presider Name
Patrick Moran
Presider Affiliation
Univ. of Ottawa
Paper Title 1
Ensi con li contes s'ajoint: Textual Filiation and the Aesthetics of Continuity in the First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes's Conte du Graal
Presenter 1 Name
Fred Dulson
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of California-Berkeley
Paper Title 2
Genealogies and Fantasies: Arthurian and Christic Miracles in Perlesvaus
Presenter 2 Name
Joseph Derosier
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Northwestern Univ.
Paper Title 3
Solomon's Ship and the Futures of Romance
Presenter 3 Name
Lucas Wood
Paper Title 4
Sone de Nansay: Genealogy and the Grail
Presenter 4 Name
Brandy N. Brown
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Rhodes College
Start Date
17-5-2015 10:30 AM
Session Location
Schneider 1140
Description
Old French Grail literature after Chrétien de Troyes' seminal Perceval obsessively thematizes and theorizes genealogy in various interconnected forms. Late twelfth- and thirteenth-century texts like Robert de Boron's Grail trilogy, the Vulgate (or Lancelot-Grail) Cycle, and the Perlesvaus exploit the Grail's mysterious provenance to develop "explanatory" pseudo-historical fictions on a grand scale. In so doing, they entwine the question of the Grail's meaning with that of its origins in a manner that also informs the texts' reflections on human filiation and literary-historical transmission. These are processes in which the interpretation of the past and the negotiation of its relationship with the present acquire profound aesthetic and ethical stakes. They prompt interrogation of competing models of temporality, of the concepts of determinism and freedom, and of the nature and purpose of romance writing itself. This panel aims to explore genealogy's modalities, meanings and functions in a Grail corpus highly aware of the constraints, responsibilities and creative possibilities associated with its own epigonal status. Of particular interest are the many ways, both explicit and performative, in which the texts connect their own generation and transmission and their active reception of literary predecessors to the genealogical paradigms constructed—and challenged—in their narratives of Grail history.
Lucas Wood
Inheriting the Grail: Genealogy, Textuality, History
Schneider 1140
Old French Grail literature after Chrétien de Troyes' seminal Perceval obsessively thematizes and theorizes genealogy in various interconnected forms. Late twelfth- and thirteenth-century texts like Robert de Boron's Grail trilogy, the Vulgate (or Lancelot-Grail) Cycle, and the Perlesvaus exploit the Grail's mysterious provenance to develop "explanatory" pseudo-historical fictions on a grand scale. In so doing, they entwine the question of the Grail's meaning with that of its origins in a manner that also informs the texts' reflections on human filiation and literary-historical transmission. These are processes in which the interpretation of the past and the negotiation of its relationship with the present acquire profound aesthetic and ethical stakes. They prompt interrogation of competing models of temporality, of the concepts of determinism and freedom, and of the nature and purpose of romance writing itself. This panel aims to explore genealogy's modalities, meanings and functions in a Grail corpus highly aware of the constraints, responsibilities and creative possibilities associated with its own epigonal status. Of particular interest are the many ways, both explicit and performative, in which the texts connect their own generation and transmission and their active reception of literary predecessors to the genealogical paradigms constructed—and challenged—in their narratives of Grail history.
Lucas Wood