Violence, Excess, and the Composite Emotional Rhetoric of Richard Coeur de Lion
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Peer-reviewed
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Repository DOI
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Authors
Elias, Marcel
Abstract
This article offers a reappraisal of the Middle English romance Richard Coeur de Lion in light of its composite nature, which, I suggest, provides grounds for a more critical reading of the eponymous hero’s bellicose temperament and violent actions than has hitherto been offered by scholarship. I argue that the later interpolations made to the romance produce a shift in narrative tone, most clearly manifested in the emotions of the portrayed characters, pointing toward an ambivalent evaluation of Richard’s violent behavior. I in turn link this evaluation to late fourteenth-century reactions against the corruption of chivalric ideals.
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Keywords
47 Language, Communication and Culture, 4705 Literary Studies, Behavioral and Social Science
Journal Title
Studies in Philology
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0039-3738
1543-0383
1543-0383
Volume Title
114
Publisher
Project MUSE