The Frame Narrative: History and Theory.
- Author/Editor
- Gittes, Katharine Slater.
- Title
- The Frame Narrative: History and Theory.
- Published
- Gittes, Katharine Slater. "The Frame Narrative: History and Theory." Ph.D. Diss. University of California San Diego 1983. DAI 44.12: 1444A.
- Review
- "Since the medieval frame narrative originated in Arabia, works in this tradition reflect, in structure and method, Arabic aesthetic principles often opposed to Greek principles of organic unity, symmetry, and completeness. Some notable features of this aesthetic are looseness of structure, autonomy of parts, open-endedness, and the use of external organizing devices such as a controlling narrator or a pervading travel or wisdom theme. The eighth-century 'Panchatantra,' the first significant frame narrative, has a loosely designed, logically incomplete Arabic frame tenuously tied to tightly plotted and intricately organized Indian boxing tales. Consistently patterned on the Arabic aesthetic, the 'Panchatantra' served as a model for the twelfth-century Spanish 'Disciplina Clericalis' of Petrus Alfonsi, which acted as a major transitional work, funneling elements of content and structure to European vernacular writers. Later Western frame narratives perpetuated basic Arabic features but also contained features which are ultimately Greek. The 'Decameron' shows the growing tension between Eastern and Western pressures. It has a tighter structure than earlier frame narratives, with its apparently symmetrical ten-by-ten mode of organization, but analysis reveals the traditional randomness and open-endedness. In the 'Confessio Amantis,' Gower adapts the frame narrative to a Western allegorical purpose; despite the seemingly tight structure of the 'Confessio,' open-endedness and other Arabic features are prominent. Various other medieval Western frame narratives, including the Western versions of the 'Seven Sages' and 'El Conde Lucanor,' likewise synthesize elements of East and West. The culminating work in the genre, the 'Canterbury Tales,' shows its Arabic roots in its method of narration, its reliance on external organizing devices, and its open-endedness, but it is shaped as well by classical and Christian elements. Chaucer manipulates features from both East and West in a sophisticated manner, fully exploiting the dynamic opposing forces that had evolved in the genre. [eJGN 39.1]
- Date
- 1983
- Gower Subjects
- Coinfessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations